Gaurav Kaul named md and ceo of Cipla Health

MUMBAI: Few executives get to follow a league-table climb with a fresh brief. Gaurav Kaul has. After pushing Cipla’s India business from #3 to #2 in the market, he has taken over as managing director and chief executive officer of Cipla Health Ltd, the company’s consumer health arm. He is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

“I’m deeply honored and excited to take on the next chapter,” he says. “A new chapter unfolds, the ambition gets bigger but the purpose remains the same.” The hashtag that closes his announcement is #Caringforlife.

The logic of the appointment is easy to see. Kaul has rich experience in business transformation and P&L management across pharma, OTC, consumer healthcare and FMCG. His skills span P&L management, sales, marketing and people leadership, digital and consumer marketing, patient engagement, diagnostics and device marketing, HCP and pharmacy engagement, route to market strategy, new product launches, business integration, channel management and development, commercial excellence, and talent development and management. He has turned lagging operations into fast, consistent and profitably growing organisations, and his exposure to diverse cultures across multiple industries has given him a knack for cross-learning and adapting to dynamic environments.

Start with the scoreboard. Reflecting on his time leading the Rx business, Kaul says he is filled with immense pride at what the teams accomplished together. Leading a 15,000+ crore business with over 12,000 people was, in his words, both a privilege and a continuous learning experience. “Together we pushed our India business from #3 to #2 in the market, consistently outperforming industry growth,” he says.

One moment stands out. Cipla’s top respiratory brand hit the #1 mark in IPM in 2025, crossing 1,000 crore in sales. Beyond the numbers, Kaul says, what stays with him are the people, their commitment and the belief that made these achievements possible.

His Cipla career has run for five years and eight months. From February 2025 he served as chief commercial head, Rx, India business, leading a 15,000+ crore India business and a 12,000+ strong organisation spanning commercial leadership and a brand portfolio of acute and chronic therapies. The portfolio was diversified, covering respiratory, anti-infectives, cardio-metabolic, urology, neurosciences, ophthalmology, dermatology, gastrointestinal, pain management, immunology and oncology.

He also orchestrated leadership across multiple specialty businesses and enterprise growth functions, spanning marketing excellence, strategy and digital, business development and in-licensing, and consumer marketing. He accelerated Cipla’s India growth trajectory, strengthening its competitive position from #3 to #2 in the Indian pharmaceutical market. Kaul also served as director, Cipla Digital Health, and as additional director, Achira Labs.

Before that, from March 2021 to February 2025, he was chief commercial head, respiratory, leading the P&L for a category with a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore (IQVIA). The respiratory brand claimed the top position in IPM. He led innovative, patient-centric engagement through Breathefree, and consumer-led campaigns for Berok and Tuffies, to improve the quality of life of respiratory patients.

Consumer health is familiar ground. At GSK Consumer Healthcare India, where he spent seven years and 11 months, he was general manager, East, from April 2019 to March 2021 in Kolkata. From April 2020 to March 2021, under Unilever, he handled the nutrition and GSKCH portfolio. He was general manager, West, in Mumbai from May 2017 to March 2019, and general manager, pharmacy, in Gurugram from June 2016 to April 2017. He served as country integration lead (ad interim) from December 2015 to May 2016 and sales integration lead from October to November 2015, both in Mumbai. He began there as head of sales, India and Sri Lanka, at Novartis Consumer Healthcare, from May 2013 to September 2015. He was also a member of the board of directors of Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Pvt. Ltd. from February 2016 to March 2020.

His grounding in FMCG runs deep. At Cadbury plc in Gurgaon, over four years and nine months, he was shopper and customer marketing manager from September 2010 to May 2013, and branch sales manager, North, from September 2008 to September 2010. He was senior area sales manager, Delhi NCR, at Conagra Brands from 2006 to 2008, and area sales manager at The Coca-Cola Company from 2005 to 2006. He began as area sales manager at Pidilite Industries Limited in Gurugram from August 2003 to April 2005.

On his new role, Kaul is upbeat. “As I step into the role of leading Cipla Health, I’m excited to build on the strong foundation and shape the next phase of growth,” he says. The consumer health and wellness space in India is evolving rapidly, he notes, offering a massive opportunity to build trusted brands, innovate for changing consumer needs and make everyday healthcare more accessible. He says he looks forward to partnering with exceptional colleagues and partners to bring about a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

The pattern is hard to miss: sales muscle from FMCG, scale from prescription pharma, and a consumer instinct sharpened at GSK. Cipla Health now gets all three in one chief executive.