• Samanta Cimitan will join Lonza as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Senior Vice President and Member of the Extended Executive Committee by 1 January 2027.
• Samanta brings extensive business leadership experience across the CDMO industry, currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of the Celonic Group.
• The newly created role will further strengthen customer engagement, commercial delivery and a harmonized go-to-market approach across One Lonza.

Basel, Switzerland, 26 August 2026 – Lonza, the world’s leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced the appointment of Samanta Cimitan as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Senior Vice President and Member of the Extended Executive Committee. Samanta will join Lonza by 1 January 2027. 

In this newly created role, Samanta will lead Strategic Enterprise Account Management, Global Marketing and Commercial Excellence. She will hold direct commercial responsibility for Lonza’s strategic accounts and through Commercial Excellence and Global Marketing help shape a unified go-to-market approach across One Lonza. In line with the One Lonza strategy, the role is designed to make it easy for customers to engage with, access and navigate Lonza’s full end-to-end offering globally and across all three Business Platforms.

Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer, Lonza, commented: “Samanta’s appointment to the new role of Chief Commercial Officer is another important step in building One Lonza and making the full power of the Lonza Engine work for our partners in the pharmaceutical industry. Our ambition is clear: Every customer should benefit from the unique breadth of our science, technology and manufacturing capabilities, helping them translate their breakthrough innovations into viable therapies for patients worldwide. Samanta brings deep CDMO expertise, commercial leadership experience and first-hand knowledge of Lonza. She understands what it takes to build trusted partnerships, execute with commercial discipline and create value across the full development and manufacturing journey. I am very pleased to welcome Samanta back to Lonza as we continue to sharpen our commercial focus and deliver on our purpose of making the medicines of tomorrow.”

Samanta brings extensive business leadership experience across the CDMO industry, with a strong track record in commercial strategy, customer partnership development and operational execution. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Celonic Group, where she has led the company’s evolution into a focused biologics CDMO and strengthened its commercial, operational, regulatory and innovation capabilities. Prior to Celonic, Samanta spent almost 13 years at Lonza in commercial and strategy leadership roles, including as Vice President of Lonza Group Operations Strategy, where she developed and led transformation programs spanning Commercial, R&D and Operations.

Notes to Editors
A high-resolution image of Samanta is available here and biography is available here. 

About Lonza

Lonza is the world’s leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to serving the healthcare industry. Working across five continents, Lonza’s global team of approximately 20,000 colleagues works alongside pharma and biotech companies to turn their breakthrough innovations into viable therapies. This enables customers to bring life-saving and life-enhancing treatments to patients worldwide with a combination of cutting-edge science, smart technology and lean manufacturing.

Our company generated sales of CHF 3.4 billion with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.2 billion in Half-Year 2026. Find out more at www.lonza.com.

Lonza Contact Details

Victoria Morgan
Head of External Communications
Lonza Group Ltd
Tel +41 61 316 2283
victoria.morgan@lonza.com

Daniel Buchta
Head of Investor Relations
Lonza Group Ltd
Tel +41 61 316 2985
daniel.buchta@lonza.com

Additional Information and Disclaimer
Lonza Group Ltd has its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. It has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”). Lonza Group Ltd is not subject to the SGX-ST’s continuing listing requirements but remains subject to Rules 217 and 751 of the SGX-ST Listing Manual.

Certain matters discussed in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and estimates of Lonza Group Ltd, although Lonza Group Ltd can give no assurance that these expectations and estimates will be achieved. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty and are qualified in their entirety. The actual results may differ materially in the future from the forward-looking statements included in this news release due to various factors. Furthermore, except as otherwise required by law, Lonza Group Ltd disclaims any intention or obligation to update the statements contained in this news release.

All trademarks belong to Lonza, and are registered in the USA, EU and/or CH, or used in common law, or belong to their respective third-party owners and are used for informational purposes only.

Privacy Policy link

To immediately delete all the data