Nikita Kulkarni joined ZAP Surgical in 2025 with about two decades of experience in investment banking, corporate development, investor relations, and R&D at biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Nikita has executed over $32B in deal value across 34 M&A and capital markets transactions in her career and taken 5 companies public.
Most recently, Nikita led the Corporate Development function at Halozyme (NASDAQ: HALO), a leader in the field of drug delivery. Prior to that, she co-led the West Coast Healthcare Investment Banking team at Credit Suisse prior to its acquisition by UBS. Prior to this, Nikita was a senior leader in the Corporate Development and Investor Relations functions at Varian (previously NYSE: VAR), where she enabled the growth and strategic transformation of the company resulting in its acquisition by Siemens Healthineers for $16.4B. Nikita played a crucial role in creating a growth-focused corporate strategy, executing on the strategy via M&A, and leading Investor Relations to communicate that strategy to Wall Street. Earlier in her career, Nikita was in the Healthcare Investment Banking team at Morgan Stanley. She began her career as a R&D scientist at Regeneron and Shire.
Nikita completed her MBA at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She also has a MS in Biotechnology from Northeastern University and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Mumbai.