R Venkataramanan is the Founder and CEO of Karkinos Healthcare, a purpose driven technology led cancer care start-up and an advisor to the Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, India’s largest private sector company.
Prior to his association with Reliance, Mr. R Venkataramanan spent more than a decade and a half with the Tata Group in various capacities. His last assignment with the Tata Group was as Managing Trustee of the Tata Trusts wherein he was responsible for the operations and oversight of, and co-ordination between, the various Tata Trusts.
As the Chief Executive Officer of the Tata Trusts, Mr. R Venkataramanan was engaged in redefining the Tata Trusts’ strategic approach with a view to making it relevant and responsive to the current needs of society while remaining within the mandate established by the Settlors. He was directly overseeing several large initiatives within the Trusts viz “Lakhpati Kisan – a program that aims to significantly enhance rural prosperity in under privileged and deprived communities, redefining Cancer Care across the country, technology enabled education initiatives in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the sanitation and nutrition projects in collaboration with Govt., of India.
Mr. R Venkataramanan is a science graduate and has done his MBA (in Finance) from the Sri Satya Sai University, Puttaparthi. He is also a Law Graduate from Mumbai University and has completed his Advanced Management Program (AMP) from the Harvard Business School. He is currently pursuing his EngD from the University of Warwick, UK on role of Technology in Health Care Systems.
He has over two decades of business and operations experience in the areas of finance, business support and strategy. From early 2007 to end 2012, he was Executive Assistant to Mr. Ratan N. Tata, the former Chairman of the Tata Group. During his stint in the Chairman’s office of Tata Sons, Mr. R Venkataramanan was part of several significant projects including the Tata Motors acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, launch of the small car Nano, creation of several joint ventures, responses in operating companies during the 2008 financial crisis etc., and was also privy to several senior leadership transitions and change management processes in the Tata Group. On behalf of the Chairman, he was the key point person to several entities in India and abroad.
Prior to his stint with Mr. Tata’s office, Mr. R Venkataramanan was associated as Head of Business Support at the Qatar Foundation, a not for profit entity engaged in Education, Science and Community development based in Doha, wherein he played a key role in establishing partnerships with a number of leading U.S. universities.
Over the past several years, Mr. R Venkataramanan has, in his personal capacity, actively supported Mr. Ratan N. Tata in his investments in the technology, digital and e-commerce space that have now begun to attract significant attention in India and abroad. He was also the CEO of UC-RNT Fund, a USD 250 million VC fund that Mr. Tata established in collaboration with the University of California. A key proponent of societal platforms, he is the midst of incubating alternative business and investment vehicles that work in the intersection of business, philanthropy, non-profits and governments on the notion of sustainable shared value creation for societal benefit. Karkinos Healthcare is part of that endeavour.