Shanthakumar (Shantha) Tyavanagimatt, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer
Shantha Tyavanagimatt has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Technical Officer since October 2025.
Background
Shantha is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of global leadership across drug development, CMC, technical operations, and due diligence. He brings deep expertise in advancing oncology and antiviral programs from early development through global approval and commercialization, with a proven record of building high-performing teams and forging strategic partnerships to deliver transformative therapies to patients. He has played pivotal roles in driving technical excellence, global supply-chain scalability and “right-first-time” approvals that enable rapid, reliable access to new medicines. He has been instrumental in transforming development-stage biopharmaceutical companies into successful commercial organizations, leading more than 30 INDs and contributing to multiple U.S. NDA and EU MAA approvals.
Before joining Geron, Shantha served as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at IDEAYA Biosciences, where he led global CMC and supply chain strategies across a portfolio of small molecules and ADCs. Earlier, as Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Operations & Early Development at CTI Biopharma, he guided the company through multiple NDA and MAA approvals, including VONJO® and Pixuvri®, and established a resilient global supply network. His prior leadership roles at GlycoMimetics, SIGA Technologies, and Dr. Reddy Laboratories strengthened his expertise across manufacturing scale-up, regulatory engagement, and lifecycle management. Shantha earned his PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and completed postdoctoral research in drug delivery at the University of Utah.