Nalini Polavarapu has been with Bayer for over ten years and heads the data science strategy and portfolio for Bayer Crop Science division. Data science activities range from applying data, IT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing and analytics to derive data-driven insights to enhance customer value, invent cognitive systems to deliver predictive pipeline for research and development, analytics to connect supply chain to improve net promoter score and reduce cost of goods and implement digital tools for environmental and customer sustainability.

Over the course of her career, Nalini held positions of increasing levels of leadership responsibilities managing teams operating across geographies in Americas, EMEA, Asia and Africa, and has successfully established and led an off-shore center in India. She also initiated multiple external partnerships and collaborations with start-ups, large corporations and universities. Nalini played a key role in building a world-class global data science organization at Bayer which is now at 500+ and growing.

Nalini has a PhD and dual Masters in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Nalini has authored and co-authored multiple analytical patents, research articles in leading scientific journals and co-authored book chapters on high throughput data analysis and applications.