SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.– Verily, an Alphabet company focused on precision health, today announced the appointment of Utpal Koppikar as Chief Financial Officer.
Utpal has had a distinguished career in finance in the life sciences industry. He joins from Atara Biotherapeutics, a leader in T-cell immunotherapy focused on cancer and autoimmune diseases, where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and where he oversaw the finance, information technology and investor relations functions.
Prior to Atara, Utpal held several senior financial leadership positions at Gilead Sciences, including Vice President of Corporate and Operations Finance. During his time there, he led the three-year financial planning process and financial integration of Kite Pharma and played a key role as Gilead’s Vice President of Finance for Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Before joining Gilead, Utpal served in multiple finance roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen. He serves on the board of C4 Therapeutics and was previously a board member of Flexion Therapeutics Inc., until its sale to Pacira Biosciences Inc.
“Utpal brings to Verily deep financial expertise as well as decades of experience in the life sciences industry at some of the most innovative companies in the sector,” said Stephen Gillett, Chief Executive Officer of Verily. “We’re thrilled to have his financial and life sciences acumen as we accelerate our path to sustainable, long-term growth with increasingly connected solutions that close the gap between research and care and further our precision health strategy.”
“The opportunity to join Verily at this inflection point is incredibly compelling as Stephen and the leadership team have the vision and determination to make precision health commercially successful,” said Utpal Koppikar. “At this significant juncture, the company has the commitment of investors and the capital to invest in research, care and precision risk management to potentially transform the lives of patients.”
Utpal’s appointment follows the appointment of Stephen Gillett as CEO at the start of the year and the announcement of a refined strategy and product portfolio in late January. Last September, Verily raised $1 billion in an investment round led by Alphabet.
