Sonal Pai is Senior Director at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she leads and scales external innovation partnerships in AI platforms, data, and digital across R&D, clinical development, and commercial functions. Her role involves identifying, evaluating, and integrating high-impact external technologies and capabilities that accelerate scientific innovation and drive meaningful business outcomes across the enterprise. Previously, Sonal was an investor at deeptech fund First Spark Ventures affiliated with SRI, where she was core component of the fund’s AI meets biotech investment strategy. She built and maintained a global network of strategic relationships spanning academic research labs, emerging startups, and established corporate technology partners and served as a board advisor to multiple portfolio companies in this space. Within her time at First Spark, she also stepped in as interim Chief Partnership Officer for an incubated AI-platform biotech startup, where she led the integration of external data platforms and frontier capabilities to accelerate the company's growth trajectory. Earlier in her career, Sonal held a key role at Genentech/Roche where she led digital and data partnerships and managed internal technology workflows. She oversaw multiple end-to-end evaluations for external collaborations, directly informing "buy vs. build" strategic roadmaps and driving large-scale AI and data initiatives that delivered measurable impact. Sonal holds an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor's in Bioengineering and Neuroscience from Rice University.