Sharmila read medicine at the University of Oxford. Rather than pursuing further clinical studies she began an international business career in finance and strategy, specialising in telecoms, infrastructure and media. She had a 14-year career at the BBC including 9 years as chief operating officer at BBC Future Media and Technology, the division that built the iPlayer. She has significant health and science experience having served on the boards of the Medical Research Council, the Association of Medical Research Charities, as deputy chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and as chairman of the Human Tissue Authority. She was most recently chief executive of Wilton Park, a not-for-profit agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office convening international policy dialogues on topics such as global health, regional and national security, climate change and artificial intelligence. She sits on a range of UK boards including Severn Trent plc, ITV plc, Halma plc and Coutts Bank. She is a World Fellow at the University of Yale and is on the Governing Council of Oxford University. Sharmila was made an OBE in 2014 for services to medical research.