Page 28 - Synergy see page 60

DR. VILLOO MORAWALA-PATELL
Founder, Chairperson and Managing Director, Avesthagen Ltd.
Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell is the
Founder, Chairperson and Managing
Director of Avesthagen Limited, an India- 1978-1989; independent scientist and
based globally-focused biotechnology
company with a mission to leverage
science to develop innovative products.
Deeply attached to her Zoroastrian and
Indian roots, she has launched a project
to build a genetic, genealogical and
medical database of India’s Zoroastrian
community.
Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell obtained her
PhD from the University Louis Pasteur,
Strasbourg, France in 1993 and Post Doc
from the University of Ghent, Belgium, in
1994.
She is the Founder, Chairperson &
Managing Director, Avesthagen Limited.
28 SynergyZ December, 2014
The following are the highlights of her
career: Worked for ICRISAT, Hyderabad,
principal investigator at the National
CenterforBiological Scienceswith funding
from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1995;
incubated Avesthagen at the University of
Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, (1998-
2000), with a grant from IFCPAR, the
Indo-French Centre for the Promotion
of Advanced Research; registered
Avesthagen as a public-private model in
1998; Created a full private entity, Avestha Zarathushti Entrepreneur Award from
Gengraine Technologies Pvt Ltd in 2000,
which became Avesthagen Ltd in 2008.
A few of the many awards she has received
are: New Millennium Technology
Leadership Initiative, Grant, CSIR, Govt
of India, 2004; L’Oreal of France Award
for ‘Women in Science’, 2004; USAID,
Grant, 2005; The Outstanding Women
Entrepreneur for the year 2005-2006 from
FICCI; The BioSpectrum Entrepreneur of
the Year Award, 2006; Parsi Entrepreneur
par Excellence Award by the Bombay
Parsi Punchayet, 2008; Officer of the
National Order of Merit by the President
of the French Republic, 2008; Karmaveer
Puraskar as a Corporate Citizen for her
contribution in the field of agriculture
and healthcare, 2009 and Outstanding
WZCC, 2009.