With in-depth experience in research and clinical development of vaccines, in both private and non-private organizations, our executive management team evaluates potential opportunities, develops and implements strategies and guides our technical and scientific staff to achieve the mission and goals of Hilleman Laboratories.
Focused on promoting an innovative health solutions-led science culture and developing a robust pipeline of vaccine research projects, our executive management is responsible for implementing and overseeing the research programmes in an efficient and result oriented manner.
Dr. Raman Rao joined as the Chief Executive Officer at Hilleman Laboratories in February 2020. Dr. Rao has more than 22 years of experience in research and development, manufacturing and commercialisation of vaccines for infectious diseases in global pharma and biotech companies. Prior to joining Hilleman Laboratories, Dr. Rao has served as the Vice President of Global Product Operations with Takeda, Singapore, where he enhanced the global product portfolio while successfully leading an international team across Japan, Singapore and United States. The teams worked in the areas of Dengue, Norovirus, Zika, Polio and other vaccines.
Dr. Rao started his career in 2002 with Shantha Biotechnics Limited, part of Sanofi Aventis Group in India, in the area of Clinical Research and Scientific Affairs. He holds a MD in Medical Microbiology from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research.
He plans to carry forward Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s legacy for providing effective solutions for global health, especially those impacting the low- and middle-income countries.
Serene Tan joined Hilleman Laboratories in July 2021 as a member of the management team, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer.
Ms. Tan has more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and biologics industry. Prior to joining Hilleman, Serene was Company Director at Takeda Vaccines Pte Ltd and was also the Financial Controller for both Inviragen Singapore Pte Ltd and SingVax Pte Ltd.
Ms. Tan is a Chartered Certified Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant.
Dr. Ali Alloueche
Global Head Business Development & Alliance Management
Global Head Business Development & Alliance Management
Dr. Ali Alloueche joined Hilleman Laboratories in October 2020, and oversees its Business Development, Alliance Management and External R&D.
Prior to joining Hilleman, Dr. Alloueche worked at Takeda Vaccines where he spent six years and a half as Head of Technology Strategy and Alliance Management, with global responsibility for external R&D, pipeline development and partnerships management with public and private stakeholders and national governments. Dr. Alloueche has also worked at Novartis, GSK and AFFiRiS in many roles with increasing responsibilities in R&D, Business Development, Alliance Management, Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. During this time, he led and contributed to the development, licensure and commercialisation of over 15 vaccines for infectious and non-infectious diseases including in India. He completed several successful in-licensing, out-licensing and spin-out transactions with biotech and large pharma companies, venture capitalists, national governments and NGOs across the entire vaccine development and commercialisation chain.
Dr. Alloueche spent 12 years in academic research in the UK and his work contributed to several malaria vaccines and drugs development and implementation in Africa and Asia. This gave him a unique opportunity to learn and appreciate the importance of vaccines as an effective and equitable global healthcare tool.
Dr. Alloueche holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow and is a member of CEPI Scientific Advisory Committee.
Dr. Alain Bouckenooghe joined Hilleman Laboratories as Global Head R&D in January 2022.
He has been working in the pharmaceutical industry over 20 years, mostly in vaccine R&D. Alain obtained his Medical Degree at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Upon graduation, he worked for several years in a rural assignment as a District Medical Officer under the Ministry of Health of Zambia.
Subsequently, he completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas, Houston. He obtained his Master of Public Health degree at the University of Texas School of Public Health and completed a Fellowship in Adult Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. Alain held several academic positions during this time in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College.
After initial industry experience with MSD and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Dr. Bouckenooghe joined Sanofi Pasteur in December 2006. He worked in Singapore from 2008 to 2018, covering various responsibilities over time, including Regional Head of Clinical R&D Asia Pacific, Regional Head Medical Affairs, and R&D Partnership lead in Asia. He joined MSD in 2018 as Associate VP leading the respiratory franchise in Global Clinical Development.
Lawrence Yap is the Head of Global Technical Operation, CMC overseeing both CMC development and clinical manufacturing operations for vaccines and biological therapeutics.
Prior to Hilleman Laboratories, he was the Site Head and CMC Director at Takeda Vaccines Singapore. In this role, he provided technical leadership and strategic vision to the process development team to develop, optimise and scale up vaccine production processes for technology transfer to CMO partners.
Prior to joining Takeda Vaccines, he was a Senior Manufacturing Manager at Amgen Singapore and led the pioneer team in setting up a next generation manufacturing facility that leverages a reconfigurable manufacturing model and single-use technologies.
Before Amgen, Mr. Yap was a Manufacturing Manager at Baxter Bioscience Singapore involved in technology transfer and start-up of a dedicated manufacturing facility producing a recombinant Factor VIII product and a brown field project enabling multi-product manufacturing.
Prior to Baxter, he held academic positions and established biopharmaceutical manufacturing training programmes at Ngee Ann and Republic Polytechnic. He also held the role of Assistant Production Manager at A-Bio Pharma, a local biologics CDMO start-up.
Lawrence holds a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering (Hon) and a Master’s in Industrial and System Engineering from the National University of Singapore.
Michelle Yeo brings her extensive experience in human resource (HR) transformation and integration to facilitate Hilleman Laboratories’ organisational setup, oversee HR operations and develop the HR business partnering function.
Her expertise encompasses the full spectrum of HR functions across various organisational maturity phases. This includes regional harmonisation of employment terms and practices, change management, establishing COE structures and procedures, data analysis and compensation and benefits design.
Ms. Yeo is passionate about delivering HR practices with empathy, and developing an engaged and motivated workforce.
Dr. N Erlyani Abd Hamid joined Hilleman Laboratories in November 2021 and oversees programme strategy and business operations. As de facto Chief of Staff to CEO of Hilleman Laboratories, she plays a central role in integrating and meeting strategic cross-functional needs, shaping the strategic outlook and implementation of key activities, driving and managing executive decision-making platforms, as well as maintaining strong channels for internal and external communications.
Dr. Hamid attained her PhD in 2013 and was trained as a developmental biologist, primarily looking at placental and early fetal development. During her training, she pioneered the use of single-cell RNA transcriptomics to understand the landscape of early placental development, working in collaboration with Cambridge University.
Prior to joining Hilleman Laboratories, Dr. Hamid started her career at A*STAR, initially as a research fellow before transitioning to a role driving the medical technology, medical device, as well as digital health portfolios. Whilst at A*STAR, she also held a role at the office of the Deputy Chief Executive for corporate affairs, where she was responsible for coordination across 12 business units and overall strategic planning.
