Lonza’s Board of Directors has appointed Philippe Deecke as the new chief financial officer (CFO) for Lonza Group. The appointment will be effective December 1, 2021. Deecke will succeed Rodolfo J. Savitzky as a member of the Lonza Executive Committee.
 
Experience
 
Deecke joins Lonza Group from Novartis, where he has held a succession of senior finance positions. Deecke 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, Deecke 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, Deecke 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, Deecke 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.
 
Deecke 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.