Lonza’s search for a new CEO is under way but the Swiss-based fine chemicals producer and CDMO’s supervisory board has warned that finding the right leader could take longer than the last CEO stayed in office.

Citing personal reasons, Marc Funk, who succeeded Richard Ridinger in the top job at the beginning of March 2019, resigned as CEO in November after only eight months in office.

The company has not said when it intends to complete the decision-making process, other than that a candidate will be presented “during the course of 2020.”

Chairman Albert Baehny has hinted at the criteria the board wants to see in its new CEO, who he said should be someone with at least two decades of experience in pharma or biotech, the fields Lonza is seeking to build up while spinning off chemicals.

According to the Reuters news agency, Baehny has a shortlist of six potential replacements, all veterans of pharma or biotech and all from outside the company, with interviews expected to begin soon.

One of the criteria should be that the next leader has 20 years-plus of pharma experience, and the term pharma can be extended to bioprocesses, to bioproducts, Reuters quotes Baehny as saying.

Lonza’s lead independent director Christoph Mäder, who took over temporarily after Funk’s departure, will serve until a replacement is named.

Funk headed Lonza’s pharma and biotech operations before being appointed as CEO. The executive is said to have been chosen to lead the company due to his prior role in strengthening gene therapy capabilities as well as its capabilities in bioconjugation.