From Asia to UIC and Back Again: Chaitanya Aggarwal Keeps the Adventure Going

After growing up in India and coming to theUIC College of Pharmacy to pursue a PhD, Dr. Chaitanya Aggarwal moved all the way back to Asia to build business teams for Merck KGaA (of Darmstadt, Germany) — making for a true adventure of a pharmaceutical career.

And the confidence he now has in taking on those challenges first blossomed thanks to a tremendously supportive UIC Ph.D. advisor, said Aggarwal, PhD ’14.

“[Dr.] Michael Federle — in the true sense of the word really coached and mentored me,” Aggarwal said. Working in Federle’s then-new lab in 2009, Aggarwal had the freedom to grow as a researcher. His advisor encouraged Aggarwal to pursue independent research projects, present at major conferences and take a valuable internship at Genentech in San Francisco.

“The kind of freedom and autonomy he allowed me to have over my research projects and the way he encouraged me to go to different international conferences and present my findings — that was a huge confidence-booster and helped me grow as a professional,” Aggarwal said.

Today, Aggarwal builds on that confidence working to create two new in-houseconsulting teams for Merck KGaA, in Singapore and Shanghai. It’s a big project, said Aggarwal, who moved to Singapore in June 2018 as head of Inhouse Consulting-Asia Pacific (APAC) for the company.

“Basically, I’m building new teams from scratch to provide consulting services to Merck KGaA’s businesses across all APAC [Asia-Pacific] countries,” he said. These teams “support internal clients in the successful conceptualization and implementation of international strategy, growth and optimization projects across all Merck business sectors,” he said.

Aggarwal got his first taste of pharmaceutical consulting while at UIC, volunteering at EnterpriseWorks Chicago (EWC), which incubates UIC professors’ startups. Consulting on an antibiotic drug launch, Aggarwal paired market-research and competitor analysis with the scientific knowledge he’d gained from his own

antibiotic Ph.D. studies. The experience gave him a broader sense of his own career possibilities, he said.

“ I realized I don’t have to stick with research — I can have a career which leverages my scientific understanding and drives a pharma business.”

DR. CHAITANYA AGGARWAL

After UIC, Aggarwal pursed that business side actively, first joining Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Chicago, then moving to Boston to join Merck KGaA’s U.S. in-house consulting team. He worked there until the opportunity in Singapore arose.

In returning to Asia, Aggarwal found himself dealing, ironically, with the culture shock of West meets East. Studying and working in the United States, he had grown accustomed to the Western business world.

“Now, I’m back in Asia, but I still feel the cultural shock,” he said. “There’s a steep learning curve, a lot of cultural nuances and unique business challenges.”

Those include tremendous business growth rates compared to the West. “All the countries are going through this explosion of growth,” he said.

Looking back on his career, Aggarwal advises UIC students to reach out to the school’s alumni network to explore different career paths. “We have really broad alumni network. If students engage with alumni, that’s actually very helpful.” �