Dr Manisha Premnath is a specialist in incubation of science-led enterprises and accelerating 
scientific innovations especially in the life sciences. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer 
of Venture Center – India’s leading science-based business and inventive enterprise incubator.
In this role, she provides leadership to a 60+ member team focused on nurturing innovative 
startups, building a rich, open-access innovation ecosystem and helping academic forge mutually 
productive partnerships with industry.

Manisha brings with her considerable experience in general management, operations 
management, project management, financial management, non-profit management and 
incubation management. In her last 15+ years of association with Venture Center, she has 
helped build some key specialized technology development facilities, develop a bioincubator, set 
up a national bioinnovation mentoring program, set up a GLP facility for supporting biopharma 
innovations, set up a regional tech transfer office, led several grant projects successfully and 
mentored hundreds of early-stage startups. In this period, Venture Center has won several 
National Awards (for technology business incubation, for bioincubation, for entrepreneurship 
ecosystem development, for nurturing IP as an incubator) and an Asian Award for incubators.
Manisha is also an experienced and long-standing board member of companies including a few 
health technology startups (devices and therapeutics) and one major pharmaceutical company 
listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Manisha is a microbiologist and biotechnologist by training. She holds a PhD from Pune 
University while carrying out research at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India
and University of Aberdeen, UK supported by prestigious fellowships from CSIR, India and the 
British Council. She is also an alumnus of Ruia College, University of Bombay. Manisha has also 
served as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. Manisha has also undergone
training in technology transfer with mentors such as Dr Ashley Stevens, RTTP, CLP (ex 
President, AUTM, USA). Manisha has also been the recipient of the British Government’s 
Chevening Rolls Royce Science, Innovation, Policy and Leadership Programme (CRISP) 
Fellowship at Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK.