Her Story
About Avanti
Avanti Kulkarni is a pharma, biotech, and medical device leader with expertise across multiple therapy areas including oncology, cardiovascular disease, neurology, and ophthalmology.
A scientist by training, she holds a Bachelor’s in Chemistry, a Master’s and PhD in Biochemistry. Avanti is also a certified Project Management Professional from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and holds certification in Applications of AI in Healthcare from Stanford University.
She began her professional journey as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and UCSF School of Medicine-Radiation Oncology, before transitioning into the pharmaceutical industry.
In her time in the pharma medical affairs function, Avanti has built and led global organizational capabilities bringing transformative growth and innovation at the intersection of science, technology, and healthcare. As a leader in medical devices she also played a key role in bringing to market innovations in cardiovascular surgery including the world’s first trans catheter heart valve replacement device, representing a significant milestone in minimally invasive procedures for valve replacements.
Avanti attributes her professional success to strong work ethic, discipline, consistency and an unwavering passion for her work guided by the mission of “service to patients”. She credits her journey equally to all the great mentors, managers, teachers and advisors. She is deeply grateful for the trust they placed in her abilities, their strong support, guidance and unconditional encouragement throughout her professional journey.
She believes that meaningful success is built on a foundation of integrity, sincerity, and truth, while lasting impact comes from adaptability and a forward-thinking mindset.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Avanti
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to a combination of strong mentors/advisors, strong work ethic, a forward-thinking mindset and a deep hunger to succeed. Each of these played a role in building drivers of success-qualities such as discipline, consistency, commitment and courage that made it possible to keep moving ahead with intention and determination.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve received wasn’t actually spoken. It was something I observed over the years: Learn to be comfortable with being disliked. This became even more evident as I grew into positions of leadership and authority. The goal isn’t to be liked by everyone, but to have the conviction and courage to do what’s right for the mission.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Advise is a strong word, and it may not be that one size fits all (neither is it strictly gender specific) but speaking purely on what helped me in my journey, it was a single-minded focus on becoming the best at what I do and delivering on goals, reliably with speed and quality. Passion, rigor, consistency and self-discipline were key to accomplishing this. Equally important was a certain amount of fearlessness, willingness to step outside boundaries, embrace change and think outside the box.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI presents a huge opportunity to accelerate and improve on everything from drug discovery, to post-market medical communications and patient support. The use of human augmented, responsible AI represents a significant opportunity in current times.
Challenges include the current regulatory atmosphere, dynamic FDA leadership and political climate making it harder for some therapies to get approval. The cost of R&D remains high and challenges with supply chain issues due to the current political climate, though these challenges may be temporary.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Personally I value discipline, honesty, integrity, passion and a strong work ethic.
Professionally, these come into play as well and I would add a strong commitment to putting patients first would be central to the work of healthcare and pharma Professionals.
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