TheBridge profile: Rohit Nambisan
Name: Rohit Nambisan
Current city: New York, NY
Current job: President, Lokavant
Past job: Head of Digital Product, Roivant Sciences
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Anywhere that serves a cortado.
Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. Influencing without authority.
Q. Job advice in three words? Start with trust.
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? At Lokavant, we are working to create an innovative clinical research platform and an open data standard for clinical research operations, all while preserving key aspects of regulatory compliance. We aim to develop a product that can predict risks in clinical research, that’s easy to interpret for those clinical research stakeholders, and that also preserves the auditability of the data.
Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? What policymakers know how to do best is stakeholder analysis: the process of collecting and synthesizing inputs and needs from a diverse set of constituents. I think that’s applicable to any innovation process.
Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? Innovators excel at refusing to accept the status quo and striving for achievements that their peers may not assess as being feasible. I think some policymakers would benefit from adopting that mindset.
Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Q. Morning routine? Stretching followed by a 1-hour gym session before I head to work.
Q. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself in the beginning of your career? When you find yourself frustrated with an issue at work, give yourself some distance from the problem – at least 24 hours where you’re engaged on other, unrelated tasks – before returning to respond/address the issue.
Q. Startup to watch? Lokavant, of course!
Q. Last time you were completely unplugged? The most recent gig I played with my band, Rho & The Nomads. Check us out at www.rhoandthenomads.com
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