Mr. Adar C. Poonawalla is the CEO of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group of Companies and the Serum Institute of India, a private family-owned business founded in 1966 by his father Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla.

Adar joined Serum Institute in 2001, after graduating from the University of Westminster in London. While continuing to manufacture and export vaccines, he focused on strengthening the institute’s international presence and securing licenses and pre-qualifications by the World Health Organization for supplying to UNICEF and PAHO.

He took over as CEO in 2011 and has since been dedicated to making healthcare affordable for everyone and developing new vaccines to safeguard lives around the globe. In his mission to fight health inequality, Adar has expanded the Serum Institute of India’s reach to over 170 countries today.

In 2017, Adar was appointed as the Brand Ambassador of ‘Swachh Bharat’, a Government of India campaign working on improving waste management. Adar also founded Poonawalla Fincorp in 2019, a digital non-banking financial company headquartered in Pune, India.

Under his leadership, the Serum Institute of India developed an affordable vaccine for the COVID-19 global outbreak. Today, the institute develops over a billion vaccine doses annually.

Adar was also a former board member of ‘GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance’, a public-private partnership vaccinating children all over the world against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases.

Most recently, he was awarded Fortune’s Greatest Leaders (2021), Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year (2021), Hurun National Icon of Philanthropy (2019), Indian of the Year - CSR Category (2020), Forbes India Leadership Awards GenNext Entrepreneur (2018) and CNBC Asia’s Corporate Social Responsibility (2018).

Adar and his wife, Natasha A. Poonawalla, co-founded the Villoo Poonawalla Foundation alongside Dr. Cyrus S. Poonawalla in 2012 to improve lives through education and healthcare. Today, the foundation works with several institutions and partners to drive real-world change.