Gaurav is the cofounder of Rocket Pharma, serving as Chief Executive Officer and Corporate Board Member. Prior to this role, Gaurav was a Global Program Head in the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis, where he had strategic oversight of 12 functions and helped spearhead pivotal trials with CART-19 for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Earlier roles at Novartis included Global Clinical Program Head for CART-19 and Biosimilars, and lead physician for Afinitor in several global oncology submissions. Gaurav started his career in industry at ImClone/Eli Lilly as a Medical Director overseeing oncology trials focused on monoclonal antibodies.
Gaurav graduated from Harvard College (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) with a degree in Behavioral Neuroscience. He received his MD from Columbia (AOA) and completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as well as hematology/oncology fellowship training at Memorial-Sloan Kettering. After receiving board certification in medical oncology, he served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Oncology at Columbia.