Bern, Berne, Switzerland
I was born in Kerala, India on the 11.October.1962. Since my late dad used to work in the indian diplomatic service we got to visit many places during his tenure. I have been to Uganda, Bangladesh and Mauritius before coming to Switzerland in May 1977 along with my parents and my 3 siblings. After completing my maturité at Kirchenfeld Gymnasium, Berne in 1982 I moved to ETH Zürich to study chemical engineering. I graduated with a masters and phD degree in 1986 and 1991 respectively. I joined LONZA on the 2nd Jan 1991. The first 7 years i was at the process development group (Betriebsverfahrensentwicklung), followed by 13 years at the "Hydrol/Meta" plant of the former LSI division of LONZA. Due to an unfortunate reorganization I had to leave LSI in Aug 2011. I was extremely fortunate to have been offered a position as a GMP production chemist at the FCC plant of the small molecules division in September 2011. I acquired extensive production and GMP knowledge during my 12 year tenure at FCC. In August 2023 I decided to leave FCC to take up a position at FCC's "younger brother" department LP/SSP as a QA project manager on the 1st January 2024. I assume and hope my current position will be my last one before I officially retire in October 2027. I was fortunate to experience a great career at LONZA which was accompanied by many ups and downs. I am convinced I learned more from those "downs" than from those "ups". As the saying goes: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I would like to thank the small molecules division QA management team to have placed their trust in me by offering this extremely satisfying and responsible job as QA project manger merely 3 years before I wind up my professional journey which started 33 years ago ...