Arun Krishnan

In his current role as Interim Head of Global Supply Chain & Strategy (GSC&S), Arun is responsible for the end-to-end management of AstraZeneca’s supply chain operations. With over two decades of experience in pharmaceutical supply chains, Arun leads GSC&S to drive supply chain resilience, innovation, and efficient delivery of AstraZeneca’s medicines to patients. Collaborating closely with over 25 manufacturing facilities and more than 50 third party suppliers in the global supply network, he spearheads the effective and sustainable supply of AstraZeneca’s medicines in more than 100 countries. Arun is committed to delivering exceptional customer service levels all while ensuring that AstraZeneca’s supply chain network is constantly transforming to be fit for the future. In his previous role as VP of Global Supply Chain Planning, Arun led the synchronizing and digitizing of AstraZeneca’s supply chains to sense, predict and respond to risks in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous global environment. Arun believes that emerging technologies and innovations are key to delivering more medicines to more patients – and he oversees the capabilities development to make sure teams have adaptive and agile skills to apply these tools effectively. He pioneered the implementation of cutting-edge digital planning and scheduling, embedded AI, data and automation into the supply network planning organization and ensured skill building through a period of significant post pandemic business growth. He also served as executive sponsor of the synchronized supply chain platform foundation to deliver business growth ambition of pipeline and portfolio medicines at the right cost, time and speed, including rapid COVID response. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Arun led global supply chain management including end-to-end planning, strategy, and transformation at Teva, Allergan, BD, Novartis/Alcon & Strides Pharmaceuticals. Arun holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and an MBA from Rutgers University.