BASEL, Switzerland – Lonza, the world's leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), 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 company by January 1, 2027, and will hold a newly created position designed to strengthen customer engagement and streamline commercial operations across the organization.
In her new role, Cimitan will lead Strategic Enterprise Account Management, Global Marketing, and Commercial Excellence. She will have direct commercial responsibility for Lonza's strategic accounts and will work to harmonize the company's go-to-market approach under the 'One Lonza' strategy. This initiative aims to make it easier for customers to access Lonza's full end-to-end offerings spanning all three business platforms globally.
Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer of 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."
Cimitan 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 led the company's evolution into a focused biologics CDMO and strengthened its commercial, operational, regulatory, and innovation capabilities. Prior to Celonic, Cimitan spent nearly 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 across Commercial, R&D, and Operations.
This appointment underscores Lonza's commitment to enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. By creating a dedicated commercial leadership role, Lonza aims to simplify customer interactions and ensure that partners can fully leverage its comprehensive capabilities. The pharmaceutical industry, which relies on CDMOs for manufacturing and development, may benefit from more streamlined processes and improved collaboration, potentially accelerating the time-to-market for new therapies.
The creation of this role is part of Lonza's broader 'One Lonza' strategy, which seeks to integrate its diverse services and present a unified front to customers. With Cimitan's return, Lonza gains a leader who not only understands the company's operations but also has demonstrated success in commercial leadership. This move is likely to have significant implications for Lonza's competitive positioning in the CDMO market.
Lonza, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, operates across five continents with approximately 20,000 colleagues. In the first half of 2026, the company generated sales of CHF 3.4 billion with a CORE EBITDA of CHF 1.2 billion. The company is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.
For more information about Lonza, visit www.lonza.com.
