Cipla hires Kedar Upadhye from Dr. Reddy's as global CFO

MUMBAI: Cipla is poaching high-profile executives from rival Hyderabad-based drug maker Dr. Reddy's Labs. After placing Umang Vohra from Dr. Reddy's as its chief operating officer, Cipla has now picked Kedar Upadhye, another top executive from Dr. Reddy's.

Cipla said in a June 8 announcement to stock exchanges, Kedar Upadhye will be joining the organization as its Global chief financial officer. The company said its board of directors at its meeting approved the appointment of Upadhye, who will assume the new role on or before August 16, 2016.

At Dr. Reddy's, Kedar Upadhye held the position of VP, global generics finance and head of investor relations.

Cipla, which is seeing a management transformation over the last few years, had appointed Vohra as Global CFO last September but in January was promoted as the COO. Last year Cipla had also announced the appointment of Prabir Jha as its global chief people officer. Jha had worked in Dr. Reddy's a few years ago but later joined Tata Motors and then had shifted to Reliance Industries.

In the last few months, Cipla has hired a few top technical professionals from manufacturing operations at Dr. Reddy's, industry sources told ET.