At a meeting on 2 April 2012, the Board of Directors of Lonza elected Richard Ridinger as the new CEO of Lonza. Mr. Ridinger, 53, will become CEO of Lonza effective 1 May. Rolf Soiron was acting CEO ad interim, since the end of January.

Richard Ridinger has held numerous leadership functions at Henkel for 14 years and Cognis for 11 years. Most recently, Mr. Ridinger was responsible for Care Chemicals, the largest sector at Cognis with approximately 3,000 employees. During his tenure, sales increased by 60% to €1.75 billion over six years, as he successfully repositioned the business in the market.

At the 2 April meeting, the Board of Directors also appointed Marc Funk, Group General Counsel and Board Secretary, to become a member of the Management Committee. Marc Funk joined Lonza in January 2009; prior he was associate general counsel at Merck Serono.