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Sembian Balasubramanian

MCS AI & Data Science · MBA · MFA

AI transformation and portfolio leader · Biopharma Medical Affairs · Production ML and agentic AI

AI strategy and agentic systems leader · Biopharma · MCS AI & Data Science

Portfolio and program management director · Biopharma Medical Affairs · PMP, MBA

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  • 24+years across engineering, digital learning and Medical Affairs
  • 537+projects planned and tracked, 2019–2026
  • $30M+budget, actual and forecast, across five cost centers
  • ~$12Mestimated cumulative cost avoidance, 2011–2026
  • ~170validation rules and fact-checking gates in Control Tower
  • −300days of app development, US Patent 9,098,680
  • ~170validation rules and fact-checking gates in Control Tower
  • −300days of app development, US Patent 9,098,680
  • 15apps built on the patented framework
  • ~$7.5Msaved through framework reuse
  • 5,000+monthly active users on PRONTO
  • 24+years building software, learning and AI systems
  • $30M+actual and forecast spend against a $29M plan, 2019–2026
  • 537projects across five cost centers, 2019–2026
  • 41advisory boards and group consultancies
  • 45symposia
  • 172medical education projects
  • 36congresses · 133 congress projects

Summary

Biopharmaceutical portfolio and program director who builds the AI that runs the work. Leads Medical Affairs portfolios end to end (strategy, budgets, launch readiness, compliance) and ships governed AI products: an agentic insights system, a Graph RAG decision platform, and a machine learning budget-risk model in production. Engineer since 2002; MCS in AI & Data Science, MBA, PMP.

  • AI transformation
  • Portfolio, program & project management
  • Strategic planning
  • Generative & agentic AI
  • Machine learning in production
  • Data governance
  • Cross-functional stakeholder leadership
  • Executive communication
  • Budget & resource planning
  • Launch readiness

AI product and transformation leader in biopharmaceutical Medical Affairs who takes AI from use case to production. Designed a Graph RAG decision platform and an evaluated, human-reviewed agentic system, and put a machine learning budget-risk model into production with backtesting and drift monitoring. 24 years across software engineering, digital learning, and portfolio leadership.

  • AI strategy & roadmaps
  • Generative & agentic AI
  • LLM evals
  • Graph RAG
  • Machine learning & MLOps
  • AI product delivery
  • Data governance & responsible AI
  • AI adoption & change management
  • Cross-functional stakeholder leadership
  • Business cases & ROI

Medical Affairs portfolio and program director with 17 years at Abbott and AbbVie across neurology, women’s health, eye care, neurotoxins, and Therapy Area 3. Runs Books of Work, consulting plans, advisory boards, congresses, medical education, budgets, and launch readiness, and pairs governance with automation so budget risk shows months earlier.

  • Portfolio operating model & PMO
  • Intake, scoring & prioritization
  • Stage-gate governance & decision forums
  • Program & project management
  • Strategic planning
  • Budget, forecasting & variance
  • Resource & capacity planning
  • Value realization
  • Cross-functional stakeholder leadership
  • Vendor & contract management
  • Compliance & audit readiness

Signature work

At a glance

Career, 2002–2026
Spend by program type, 2019–2026 actual and forecast, rounded
  • Medical education 172 projects$8.6M
  • Congresses 133 projects · 36 congresses$4.8M
  • Symposia 45$2.7M
  • Advisory boards 41$2.1M
  • Booths & exhibits 42$1.8M
  • Sponsorships & memberships 49$1.2M

Program types overlap: symposia also count as medical education, and congress projects include symposia and booths.

Two roles, one portfolio projects and actual or forecast spend

Together: 537 projects and about $31M against a $29M plan.

Estimated cost avoidance, about $12M 2011–2026 · not audited
  • Framework reuse 2011–2015 · 15 apps × $500K~$7.5M
  • Eye Care evidence review 2026~$1.5M
  • Women's Health portfolio decisions 2018~$1.4M
  • Workshop automation 2024–2026~$800K
  • Vendor optimization 2022–2026~$650K
  • Congress reporting 2025–2026~$450K
  • Framework reuse: 15 mobile applications at about $500K each, serving 5,000+ Commercial and Medical field users.
  • Eye Care evidence review: portfolio gap and endpoint analysis informed a research cancellation, with the therapeutic lead and evidence teams.
  • Women's Health portfolio decisions: led a research-study cancellation through proactive risk assessment and trade-off planning aligned with evidence and Medical strategy.
  • Workshop automation: facilitated 12 gap workshops across four therapeutic areas, using custom Microsoft Copilot PowerPoint skills for slide development.
  • Vendor optimization: consolidated US and global content support and negotiated vendor costs across four advisory boards and three symposia.
  • Congress reporting: Copilot Notebooks and PowerPoint automation for abstract extraction, competitive intelligence and pre- and post-congress summaries, avoiding vendor slide support across seven congresses in three therapeutic areas.
How the AI platforms work human review at every decision
  1. InputsExecution, budgets, risks, care gaps
  2. Control TowerKnowledge-graph retrieval, ~170 validation rules
  3. Human reviewFact-checking gates
  4. DecisionPrioritized investment
  1. InputsThousands of field insights
  2. MAESTROAgentic orchestration and themes
  3. Human reviewMedical reviewers
  4. DecisionStrategic actions for leadership
More charts: AI work in miniature and event roadmaps
AI work in miniature recreated mockups · sample data
Event roadmaps samples from my Asana templates · weeks before and after the event

Advisory board

Objectives, advisors & vendor RFP
SOW, PO & kickoff
Advisor contracts
Agenda, pre-reads & slides
Medical & compliance approvals
Venue, invitations & travel
Thank-yous, invoices & summary
Milestones

Congress symposium

Decision to attend & budget
Sponsorship package & vendor RFP
Speakers, agenda & contracts
Content, materials & approvals
Competitive intelligence plan
Field pull-through
Close-out, evaluations & insights
Milestones

Congress booth

Kickoff & objectives
Booth space, sponsorship & payment
Content vendor contract
Design & renderings
Content & medical approvals
Badges, staffing & training
Build, ship & install
Live, debrief & metrics
Milestones

Select a phase or milestone to see what happens in it.

Each template sets every task relative to the event day, so a new project gets its whole timeline from one date. Phases are summarized; the templates also carry owners, approval pathways and T-minus fields.

Professional experience

Top results first. Open a role for every result and the portfolio work behind it.

AbbVie

2015 – Present

Director, Medical Program Management, Eye Care, Neurotoxins & Therapy Area 3 International

Dec 2025 – Present
  • 51projects
  • $3.2M2026 investment
  • ~170validation rules
  • 12gap workshops
  • Gave Medical Affairs leaders and cross-functional stakeholders one governed view of tactics, budgets, approvals, and investment decisions, enforced by about 170 validation rules, by defining requirements for and designing the MPM Control Tower, an AI product where rules compute every figure and generative AI explains it through knowledge-graph retrieval (Graph RAG).
  • Governed 51 projects and $3.2M of 2026 investment from intake to decision (plan: $2.9M) by running intake and scoring, stage-gate reviews, cross-functional escalation paths, and co-led decision forums, with risks, mitigations, and decision logs kept in one audit-ready view.
  • Turned thousands of field insights into medically reviewed recommendations for executive leadership, with every output gated by evals and logged tool calls, by founding MAESTRO, an agentic AI system of a planner and expert agents over insights, knowledge graphs, and finance tools.
  • Cut literature and congress review effort, ~$450K est. avoided across seven congresses, by automating paper screening (an agent scores, a reviewer decides), abstract extraction, and daily Copilot leadership summaries.
  • Plan 2026 execution across eight congresses, four advisory boards ($176K), and 27 medical education projects ($1.7M), including 10 symposium projects ($553K) and three booths ($326K), with 10+ consulting contracts executed under country compliance guidance.
  • Made evidence-generation investment decisions comparable across markets and four therapeutic areas, delivered in 12 gap workshops (~$800K est. cost avoidance, 2024–2026), by building one transparent scoring rule and custom Microsoft Copilot skills.
7 more results6 more results7 more resultswork samples
  • Made evidence-generation investment decisions comparable across markets and four therapeutic areas, delivered in 12 gap workshops (~$800K est. cost avoidance, 2024–2026), by building one transparent scoring rule and custom Microsoft Copilot skills.
  • Avoided ~$1.5M in research spend (est., 2026) by leading the Eye Care evidence-gap and endpoint analysis that led to a research cancellation.
  • Plan 2026 execution across eight congresses, four advisory boards ($176K), and 27 medical education projects ($1.7M), including 10 symposium projects ($553K) and three booths ($326K), with 10+ consulting contracts executed under country compliance guidance.
  • Cut literature and congress review effort, ~$450K est. avoided across seven congresses, by automating paper screening (an agent scores, a reviewer decides), abstract extraction, and daily Copilot leadership summaries.
  • Saved $150K in vendor fees and set annual strategic planning priorities across ten workshops by building the Fast Start framework with Claude Code and Copilot, which turns 16 inputs into a 325-slide workshop deck and roadmap.
  • Gave leadership costed 2027 staffing options for medical review by building a workload forecast (resource and capacity planning) backtested on four years of workload, funding, invoice, and timesheet data.
  • Drive AI transformation and everyday adoption across Medical Program Management as AI Champion, coaching teams to build and apply Copilot skills in their own workflows (change management in the flow of work).
  • Governed 51 projects and $3.2M of 2026 investment from intake to decision (plan: $2.9M) by running intake and scoring, stage-gate reviews, cross-functional escalation paths, and co-led decision forums, with risks, mitigations, and decision logs kept in one audit-ready view.
  • Standardized 50+ projects in Asana across the Medical Affairs Books of Work for three Eye Care indications, Therapy Area 3, and neurotoxins, and co-authored three annual consulting plans.
  • Kept international engagements compliant, with audit-ready records, by executing 10+ consulting contracts under country guidance and taking sponsorship and consulting plans through Ethics & Compliance.
  • Gave Medical Affairs leaders and cross-functional stakeholders one governed view of tactics, budgets, approvals, and investment decisions, enforced by about 170 validation rules, by defining requirements for and designing the MPM Control Tower, an AI product where rules compute every figure and generative AI explains it through knowledge-graph retrieval (Graph RAG).
  • Turned thousands of field insights into medically reviewed recommendations for executive leadership, with every output gated by evals and logged tool calls, by founding MAESTRO, an agentic AI system of a planner and expert agents over insights, knowledge graphs, and finance tools.

See it in the portfolio

Director, Medical Program Management & Strategic Operations, US Neurology & Women’s Health

Mar 2015 – Nov 2025
  • 486projects
  • $27.8Mspend vs $26.5M plan
  • −20%budget variance
  • 100%compliance approval
  • Delivered 486 projects and $27.8M in spend against a $26.5M plan (2019–2024) as portfolio, program, and project management lead for two US Neurology and three Women’s Health therapeutic areas, owning Medical Functional Plans and Books of Work.
  • Cut budget variance 20% across $10M in portfolios by putting SmartSync into production: a machine learning model (random forest, five years of budget grids) that forecasts each tactic’s year-end spend and risk level.
  • Achieved 100% Ethics & Compliance approval on reviewed plans while running 37 advisory boards ($1.9M), 121 projects at 28 congresses, 145 medical education projects ($6.9M), and 47 sponsorships ($1.1M).
  • Put forecasts where teams plan, 164 tasks across three projects in under five minutes with no API errors (2025 run), by writing scheduled Python jobs that post each forecast, risk level, and top SHAP drivers to Asana.
  • Kept the forecast reliable year to year across its model lifecycle with walk-forward backtests on a held-out year, versioned models retrained each planning cycle, and monthly error and drift checks.
  • Brought three assets to medical launch readiness by running integrated cross-functional plans from L-24 planning through leadership readiness reviews.
10 more results6 more results10 more resultswork samples
  • Brought three assets to medical launch readiness by running integrated cross-functional plans from L-24 planning through leadership readiness reviews.
  • Brought 200+ projects under one portfolio operating model by building Asana Enterprise OKRs, event templates scheduled back from event day, automated workflows, predictive budget controls, and portfolio scorecards.
  • Put forecasts where teams plan, 164 tasks across three projects in under five minutes with no API errors (2025 run), by writing scheduled Python jobs that post each forecast, risk level, and top SHAP drivers to Asana.
  • Kept the forecast reliable year to year across its model lifecycle with walk-forward backtests on a held-out year, versioned models retrained each planning cycle, and monthly error and drift checks.
  • Redesigned the finance, contracting, and purchasing workflow after mapping 100+ intake-to-purchase-order timelines with Celonis process mining, and consolidated multi-source spend into a Power BI financial analysis system for leadership and long-range planning.
  • Avoided ~$1.4M (est., 2018) in the Women’s Health portfolio through a risk assessment and trade-off plan that led to a study cancellation; consolidated US and global vendors for ~$650K more (2022–2026).
  • Showed leadership how spend moved with HCP sentiment and digital engagement by building Power BI financial analytics and KPI dashboards fed by data pipelines and Posner-model sentiment analysis (NLP) of field data.
  • Helped MSLs and congress booth teams explain disease mechanisms with Women’s Health Unity VR experiences and 360-degree videos, measured with engagement analytics.
  • Improved collaboration scores year over year by leading a psychological safety assessment across multiple medical teams and carrying out the action plan.
  • Reached 90% engagement on a pump-training series after deploying Microsoft Teams for the Women’s Health teams.
  • Found where contracting time was lost between initiative intake and purchase order across 100+ timelines by process mining in Celonis, then redesigned the finance, contracting, and purchasing workflow.
  • Delivered 486 projects and $27.8M in spend against a $26.5M plan (2019–2024) as portfolio, program, and project management lead for two US Neurology and three Women’s Health therapeutic areas, owning Medical Functional Plans and Books of Work.
  • Delivered 121 projects at 28 congresses (2019–2024), including 35 symposium projects ($2.2M) and 39 booths and exhibits ($1.4M) at ACOG, AAN, AAGL, MDS, and SEUD.
  • Managed 47 society, membership, and patient-advocacy sponsorships ($1.1M), including the Parkinson’s Foundation, MJFF, SWHR, and ASRM.
  • Cut budget variance 20% across $10M in portfolios by putting SmartSync into production: a machine learning model (random forest, five years of budget grids) that forecasts each tactic’s year-end spend and risk level.
  • Kept field programs running without disruption by managing neurology device logistics for ATMRD 2024 and nurse-educator vendor contracts with Compliance, Legal, and Purchasing.

See it in the portfolio

Abbott Laboratories

Nov 2009 – Feb 2015

Senior Manager, Digital Learning Design & Development

Nov 2009 – Feb 2015
  • −300days per build
  • ~$7.5Msaved, 15 apps
  • 5,000+monthly users
  • Cut app development cycles by 300 days and saved ~$7.5M across 15 apps by inventing a reusable iOS security framework (sole inventor, US Patent 9,098,680); President’s Award, 7 of 55,000+ employees.
  • Grew engagement 10x for 5,000+ monthly active sales representatives by building and running PRONTO, a learning and tracking platform, plus the BRAINIAK learning game (15x engagement).
Work samplesWork samplesWork samples

See it in the portfolio

Cognizant Technology Solutions

Jul 2002 – Nov 2009

Program Manager & Application Architect

Jul 2002 – Nov 2009
  • 40engineers led
  • 100+courses scaled
  • Delivered learning platforms and API integrations for GlaxoSmithKline, Delta Air Lines, and MetLife as program manager of a 40-person offshore engineering team.
  • Consolidated GlaxoSmithKline’s learning systems into one global, multilingual platform and scaled Delta training to 100+ courses with a reusable course framework, LMS reporting, and scored Boeing 787 flight-deck simulations.

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