Lonza names Richard Ridinger CEO

Richard Ridinger has been named CEO of Swiss-based Lonza, one of the world’s leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Ridinger will become CEO effective May 1, succeeding Rolf Soiron who was acting CEO ad interim, since the end of January. Ridinger, 53, has extensive industrial leadership experience. He held numerous leadership functions at Henkel for 14 years and Cognis for 11 years. Most recently, he was responsible for Care Chemicals, the largest sector at Cognis. In working together with the private equity owners of Cognis, Ridinger has proven his ability to achieve business excellence as well as to fulfill strategic and economic goals. Following the takeover of Cognis by BASF at the end of 2010, Ridinger supported the integration of the company. As CEO of Lonza, Ridinger has been mandated with strengthening Lonza’s market position in relevant markets, strengthening competitive capabilities and productivity improvement in critical areas. (April 2, 2012)