• Lonza appoints Philippe Deecke as CFO and member of the Lonza Group Executive Committee
• Philippe brings a wealth of experience from a 30-year career, which includes senior leadership roles in Novartis finance and time working as a McKinsey consultant
• He will commence his tenure with Lonza Group on 1 December 2021
• Philippe succeeds Rodolfo J. Savitzky, who leaves Lonza Group for a new opportunity on 31 December 2021

Lonza today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Philippe Deecke as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Lonza Group. The appointment will be effective from 1 December 2021. Philippe will succeed Rodolfo J. Savitzky as a member of the Lonza Executive Committee.

Philippe joins Lonza Group from Novartis, where he has held a succession of senior finance positions. Philippe has worked at Novartis for more than 16 years, and most recently held the role of Global CFO for Novartis Oncology. In this role, he was responsible for the long-term financial performance, planning, controlling, reporting and compliance of a major Novartis business unit.

Albert M. Baehny, Chairman, Lonza, commented: “It gives us great pleasure to welcome Philippe to our leadership team. He joins us at a critical moment in our journey as we redouble our strategic focus on operational excellence and business growth.”

Pierre-Alain Ruffieux, CEO, Lonza, added: “Philippe brings a wealth of relevant experience alongside a strong understanding of customer needs and manufacturing in the pharma industry. His expertise will prove to be invaluable as we continue to capitalize on our strong market position and drive our long-term success.”

Prior to his most recent role in Novartis Oncology, Philippe held the role of Global CFO for Sandoz, a Novartis division specializing in generics and biosimilars (from 2017 to 2021). In this role, he supported margin improvement across the business including the manufacturing network and enabled business growth with a strategic approach to Business Development and Licensing (BD&L) and M&A activities. Prior to this, Philippe held a number of roles at Novartis, including CFO of Alcon EMEA, previously a Novartis division (from 2015 to 2017), and Head of Management Reporting and Corporate Planning for the Novartis Group (from 2012 to 2015).

Before commencing his tenure with Novartis, Philippe worked for more than six years at McKinsey as Associate Principal and Member of the European Pharma and Medical Products Practice. In this role, he specialized in developing growth strategies for a wide range of clients in the pharmaceutical industry.

Philippe holds an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson School (US), a Master’s Degree in Industrial Management and Manufacturing from ETH Zurich (CH) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from ETH Zurich (CH). He lives in Basel with his wife and three children.

On commencing his tenure on 1 December 2021, Philippe will succeed Rodolfo J. Savitzky, who has been the CFO of Lonza Group since October 2016 and has played an important role in the successful growth of the company. He contributed to Lonza’s transformation to a pure-play pharma services company while fostering improvements and efficiency in Finance and IT. He also played a valuable role in multiple strategic projects as part of the Lonza Group Executive Committee.

Rodolfo has accepted a position at another company. The Lonza management would like to thank him for his valuable contributions and wishes him every success in his new role.