Parth Chakrabarti

Executive Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Business Development

In his role as executive vice chancellor for innovation and business development, Parth Chakrabarti aims to strengthen and enlarge the size, scope and impact of the UMass Chan research enterprise, leveraging the commercialization of the institution’s IP portfolio through agreements, spin-outs, alliances, collaborations, and partnerships with variety of new and established life sciences partners.

Chakrabarti began his career as a medicinal chemist before transitioning to a series of global business leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Sanofi Genzyme, Becton Dickinson, and Amgen. During his nearly 20-year career, he has closed dozens of deals across academia and industry, and built innovation/strategy functions on behalf of several global organizations.

Most recently, he served as vice president of business development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, leading the company’s portfolio innovation and business development operations. Previously, he was global head of business development—immunology at Sanofi Genzyme and was senior director of transactions and new ventures at Johnson & Johnson Innovation. In these roles, he focused on building close relationships with venture capitalists, biotech companies, academic researchers, entrepreneurs and incubators/accelerators worldwide.

Chakrabarti is a co-inventor on multiple granted patents and has co-authored peer-reviewed papers on novel drug discovery, covering multiple therapeutic areas. He has an MPH from Harvard University in healthcare management and policy, an MBA from Indian School of Business, and a master degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU).