Maninder Kapoor Puri leaves Biocon to take up CHRO role at Syngene

Maninder Kapoor Puri has stepped down as Chief Human Resources Officer at Biocon and will take up the CHRO role at Syngene International, marking a senior leadership transition within the Biocon Group’s life sciences ecosystem.

The move was confirmed by Puri in a LinkedIn post, where she reflected on her tenure at Biocon and outlined her next role at Syngene, a contract research and manufacturing services company.

Puri exits Biocon after nearly three years, during which she was part of the executive leadership team and led key people and culture initiatives. Her departure comes as Syngene looks to strengthen its people strategy amid growing global demand for research-led services.

In her statement, Puri described her time at Biocon as “deeply meaningful”, crediting the organisation’s leadership and teams for shaping her journey.

She will now join Syngene as CHRO, overseeing talent strategy for a workforce of over 5,500 scientists and professionals engaged in research and innovation.

FOCUS ON SCIENTIFIC TALENT AND CULTURE

At Syngene, Puri is expected to focus on building a high-performance, purpose-driven work environment aligned with the company’s scientific and research-led mandate.

In her post, she emphasised that the organisation’s culture is rooted in its work, noting that purpose is embedded “in the pipelines, the research, and the people who dedicate their careers to discovery”.

Her mandate will likely include strengthening talent development, enabling organisational scale, and supporting global growth ambitions in the life sciences sector.

BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

Puri brings over three decades of experience across HR leadership, organisational transformation, and talent strategy. Prior to Biocon, she held senior roles at Mastek, Firstsource, Accenture, and iGate, working across large-scale, global organisations.

At Biocon, she played a central role in aligning people strategy with business priorities, while also driving initiatives around diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement.

The leadership move comes at a time when life sciences companies are increasingly investing in talent capabilities to support complex research, innovation, and global delivery models.

As People Matters has previously reported, organisations in the sector are placing greater emphasis on specialised talent, culture design, and long-term capability building to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving scientific landscape.