About DKMS-BMST

Meet our core team

DKMS-BMST is a joint venture of two reputed non-profit organisations: BMST (Bangalore Medical Services Trust) and DKMS, one of the largest international blood stem cell donor centres in the world.

11/08/2023

DKMS-BMST is a joint venture of two reputed non-profit organizations: BMST (Bangalore Medical Services Trust) and DKMS, one of the largest international blood stem cell donor centers in the world.

DR. Latha Jagannathan: Chairperson & Director

DR. LATHA JAGANNATHAN

Dr. Latha Jagannathan is the Medical Director and Managing Trustee of Bangalore Medical Services Trust, (BMST) and Director on the board of DKMS BMST Foundation, India.

She studied Medicine from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, and was trained at Hoxworth Blood Center, University of Cincinnati, Ohio in Tissue matching and typing.

She founded BMST in 1984 and has been responsible for its operations and growth into the only standalone centre in India providing a wide spectrum of services in the field of blood, organ & cellular therapies, training and research, through the Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Centre, Tissue Bank & HLA Lab.

She is an invited member of several Government, National & International bodies on Health, Blood Banking & Transfusion and Transplant Immunology.

DR. Alexander Schmidt: Director

Dr. Alexander Schmidt has been Managing Director and the Chief Medical Officer of DKMS since 2013. He is responsible for all areas that provide professional information and advice as well as coordination and support for donors before, during and after a donation, thus ensuring safe bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell donations.

In addition, Alexander oversees the ongoing relationship management with transplant centers, search units and registries and the medical advice for all international DKMS entities. He and his teams are also responsible for various quality programs and scientific projects.

Alexander holds a doctorate in mathematics and medicine. After working as an intern at Heidelberg University Hospital, he worked as a management consultant with a focus on health care issues. He has been working for DKMS since 2002 in various management positions. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the DKMS Life Science Lab and the DKMS Stem Cell Bank and Chief Scientific Officer of the DKMS Registry.

MR. Khokale Narayana Rao Prabhashankar: Director

Mr. Khokale Narayana Rao Prabhashankar did his Bachelor of Commerce in 1973 and passed out his Final Chartered Accountancy examination in 1977. Presently he is a Founder and Senior Partner in M/s. Ashok Kumar Prabhashankar & Co., Chartered Accountants, Bangalore. He has more than 35 years of experience in the Accountancy profession. Mr. Prabhashankar joined the Rotary Club of Bangalore (RCB) in the year 1986 and he was the President of RCB in the year 1993-94. He was instrumental in conducting many humanitarian projects in the community and he was recognized by the Rotary Foundation for his contribution to the Foundation during his term as District Governor of District 3190 during the year 2003-04. He continues to serve the Rotary Foundation through various programs and he was instrumental in setting up a hospital for the poor during his tenure as President. He is actively involved as a Trustee of the Bangalore Medical Services Trust (Rotary Bangalore TTK Blood Bank). He is serving as the Chairman of the Trust for the last 8 years. His responsibility is to take care of the working of the Blood Bank in terms of better administration and good financial ethics.

MR. Arun K Singh: Director

Mr. Arun K Singh worked on the Institutional Equities for more than 2 decades building financial models for more than 300 corporates across 25 different sectors. Arun studied MBA in finance from Mumbai University. After which he joined as the CFO in one of the emerging start-up ecosystems that was working on solving the problem of making philanthropy scalable by leveraging digitization and social media. With a very strong inclination towards libertarianism as well, Mr. Arun K Singh wanted to help charitable organizations become sustainable. Since then, he and his organization has partnered with about 300 charities in a number of ways. Watching his founder every day, who is a cancer survivor himself, Arun was amazed by the possibility of witnessing a life after cancer and has now become an integral part of DKMS BMST Foundation India by joining as a new director.