About
Ocugen

OUR PEOPLE

Our leaders have a proven track record of success across the healthcare industry—in biopharmaceutical research, commercialization, medicine, and operations. They bring their individual experiences, in the public sector and private industry, to the collective work we are doing to benefit patients.

We share a common goal—identify and develop revolutionary science to bring something unique to the healthcare landscape that has a way to impact diseases and conditions like no other therapeutic option can.

The Ocugen team is dedicated to and driven by our core values:

Be Bold
Act with Urgency
Demonstrate Ingenuity
Show Resolve

MEET OUR
FOUNDERS

  • SHANKAR MUSUNURI , PHD, MBA

    Chairman,
    CEO and Co-founder

    Dr. Musunuri is a seasoned biotech veteran with about 30+ years of results-driven experience advancing and commercializing a diverse portfolio of products. Prior to co-founding Ocugen in 2013, Dr. Musunuri held leadership roles at numerous companies ranging from “Big Pharma” to novel start-up biotechs. After a long tenure at Pfizer, he founded Nuron Biotech, Inc., which he grew to a commercial company in less than three years, serving as President and CEO. Dr. Musunuri spent nearly fifteen years at Pfizer, where he gained extensive product launch and life-cycle management experience, playing a key role as Global Operations Team Leader for one of the most successful launches in vaccine history, the vaccine Prevnar 13®.

    Dr. Musunuri obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Connecticut’s School of Pharmacy and serves on the advisory Board of Fuqua’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University.

  • UDAY KOMPELLA , PHD

    Co-founder and Director

    Dr. Kompella is an Ocugen Co-founder and a member of the board. He is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ophthalmology, and Bioengineering at University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus, with research interests in the areas of drug discovery, drug delivery, and nanotechnology for treating a variety of degenerative, neovascular, and inflammatory disorders including retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and cancers. Dr. Kompella is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the journal Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery. Also, he is an editor for the journals, Pharmaceutical Research and the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. Kompella is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award (University of Nebraska Medical Center), Distinguished Teacher Award (University of Nebraska Medical Center), and Dean’s Mentoring Award (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus). He is also a recipient of the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research/Pfizer Ophthalmics/Carl Camras Translational Research Award in Ophthalmology. Dr. Kompella obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California.