Samanta Cimitan to Become CCO of Lonza
Samanta Cimitan will join Lonza as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Senior Vice President, and a member of the extended Executive Committee, effective January 1, 2027.
Lonza has announced the appointment of Samanta Cimitan as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Senior Vice President, and member of the Extended Executive Committee. Cimitan will join the Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) no later than January 1, 2027. In this newly created role, she will oversee Strategic Enterprise Account Management, Global Marketing, and Commercial Excellence. She will also have direct commercial responsibility for Lonza’s strategic customers and will work with the Commercial Excellence and Global Marketing teams to develop a unified market approach for the company. In line with the One Lonza strategy, the position is intended to help facilitate customer access to Lonza’s global end-to-end offering across all three business platforms.
Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer of Lonza, stated: “The appointment of Samanta Cimitan as Chief Commercial Officer is another important step in building One Lonza and in harnessing the full power of the Lonza Engine for our partners in the pharmaceutical industry. Our goal is clear: Every customer should benefit from the unique breadth of our scientific, technological, and manufacturing expertise so that groundbreaking innovations can be translated into effective therapies for patients worldwide.
Samanta Cimitan brings deep CDMO expertise, extensive experience in commercial leadership, and first-hand knowledge of Lonza. She knows how to build trusting partnerships, consistently deliver on commercial goals, and create value throughout the entire development and manufacturing chain. “I am very pleased to welcome Samanta back to Lonza as we continue to sharpen our commercial focus and pursue our goal of making the medicines of tomorrow a reality.”
Samanta Cimitan has many years of leadership experience in the CDMO industry and has built a successful career in sales strategy, customer partnerships, and operational execution. She is currently CEO of the Celonic Group, where she has driven the company’s evolution into a focused biologics CDMO and strengthened its commercial, operational, regulatory, and innovation capabilities. Prior to joining Celonic, Cimitan worked at Lonza for nearly 13 years. There, she held various leadership positions in sales and strategy, including the role of Vice President of Group Operations Strategy. In this role, she developed and led transformation programs in sales, research & development, and manufacturing.
