Bubendorf/Basel, Switzerland, March 3, 2020 – The Bachem Group (SIX: BANB) informed the public today about the changes to the Board of Directors that are due to take effect as of the Annual General Meeting in April 2020.
In accordance with the provisions of the company By-Laws, Dr. Thomas Burckhardt, member of the Board of Directors since 1997, and Dr. Rolf Nyfeler, member since 2012, are no longer standing for reelection. Consequently, it will be proposed at the Annual General Meeting of 22 April 2020 that Dr. Thomas Früh and Dr. Steffen Lang be elected as new Members of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Kuno Sommer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, remarked:
“With Dr. Steffen Lang we won over an extremely competent specialist with great experience of life sciences for our Board of Directors. Just in the current phase of expansion, he will be a very valuable addition to the Board. Furthermore, the planned election of Dr. Thomas Früh to the Board of Directors underscores the continuity that marks out our Group’s strategic leadership. We take this opportunity to thank the two outgoing Members of the Board of Directors for their many years of commitment to the company and their major contributions to its success. I look forward to working together with the newly constituted Board of Directors and to continuing the Bachem Group’s success story.”
Information on the new Board Members
Dr. Thomas Früh, 63, has occupied a number of different positions in the company since 1997; from April 2012 to the end of 2019, he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Bachem’s Corporate Executive Committee. He completed his education as a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and then was a research fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge. Before he joined Bachem, he held various research and development positions at Ciba-Geigy and Novartis.
Thomas Früh is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dottikon ES Holding AG, Vice President of the business association scienceindustries, Board member of the Chamber of Commerce of both Basel and President of the Board of the foundation SimplyScience.
Steffen Lang, Ph.D., 52, has been Global Head of Novartis Technical Operations (NTO) since 2017. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Lang served as Global Head of Biologics Technical Development and Manufacturing within NTO from 2015 to 2017. He joined Novartis in 1994 as Head of Laboratory in Research, and over the years has held various positions within Pharmaceuticals Development, including Global Head of Technical Research and Development from 2009 to 2015. Mr. Lang holds a doctorate in pharmaceutical technology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the
University of Heidelberg in Germany.