🧬 Shekhar Mitra - InnoPreneur & P&G - Part 1 | Growing Up in a Multigenerational Household | Undergraduate Experience at IIT | Groundbreaking Lab Research at Columbia | Diverse Experiences in New York City

The Biotech Startups Podcast

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Part 1 of 4.

My guest for this week’s episode is Shekhar Mitra, former Senior Vice President of Global Innovation and Chief of Innovation at Procter & Gamble and current President and Founder of InnoPreneur, a strategic advisory firm that enables development of innovation capabilities, ideation, and organizational development for Fortune 500 corporations and new ventures.

Prior to InnoPreneur, Shekhar spent 29 years at Procter & Gamble where he worked his way up from staff scientist to Senior Vice President of Global Innovation and Chief of Innovation, becoming a part of P&G's top leadership team and a member of the CEO's Global Leadership Council. Shekhar’s time at P&G paints a successful entrepreneurial road map for those looking to learn, grow, and innovate within large corporations. Post retirement from P&G, Shekhar spent several years as a board member and strategic adviser to several Fortune 500 corporations, new ventures, and private equity companies developing transformational new ideas, business strategies, and organization capabilities to drive growth. With over 50 patents awarded in different fields, Shekhar’s an expert with an exceptional track record in creating and developing game changing technology platforms and formulating disruptive innovation strategies, whose extensive background in R&D offers unique insights that listeners can benefit from.

Join us this week and hear about:

• Shekhar’s upbringing in a multigenerational household and the values that instilled in him
• His journey through graduate school
• The groundbreaking research he conducted investigating complex biological systems
• His diverse experiences in New York City from intense lab work to exploring the city’s vibrant cultural scene
• And much more!

Please enjoy my conversation with Shekhar Mitra.

Timestamps
00:28 Intro

02:40 Episode starts, early years, growing up in a joint family of immigrants

09:38 Lessons learned about leadership from managing family relationships and experience in sports

12:23 Attending the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur and focusing on biophysical chemistry, undergraduate lab experience at IIT

17:43 Decision to move to New York City from India to pursue a Master’s and PhD at Columbia University, experiences in a new city as an immigrant

24:57 Appreciating the difficult moments and finding joy in all circumstances in both life and business

30:01 Experiences and opportunities working in the lab at Columbia studying biological proteins in cells

38:58 Taking risks and being willing to fail in order to grow and make a meaningful impact

43:07 Outro

Find Our Guest, Shekhar Mitra, at this link:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shekhar-mitra-ph-d-4b427b47/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

https://www.excedr.com

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Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

https://www.iitk.ac.in/

Columbia University

https://www.columbia.edu/

National Academy of Sciences

https://www.nasonline.org/

Journal of Biological Chemistry

https://www.jbc.org/

Lab Equipment for Biochemistry Research https://www.excedr.com/blog/lab-equipment-list-for-biochemistry-research

What is DNA Extraction?

https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-dna-extraction

What Types of Equipment is Used in Molecular Biology Research?

https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-type-of-equipment-is-used-in-molecular-biology-research

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