It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Lonza 2024 Annual Report – an important milestone in a year of structured and strategic change for our company. With governance enhancements at the Board level and the launch of our new One Lonza Group strategy, 2024 was a defining year in which we strengthened our foundations to deliver long-term value creation with a sharpened focus on our core CDMO1 business.
In May 2024, I took over as Chair from Albert Baehny, and I would like to thank Albert for his many contributions to Lonza. Shortly after I commenced in my role, in July 2024, I was joined by Wolfgang Wienand who commenced his new role as Chief Executive Officer. Already before his arrival, Wolfgang and I started to establish a strong working dynamic founded upon trust, shared values, and complementary experiences. Together, we are committed to ensuring that the business is well equipped to navigate challenges, capture opportunities, and deliver on our shared vision to be the pioneer and world leader in the CDMO industry, setting the pace with cutting-edge science, smart technology and lean manufacturing.
In my first year as Chair, I agreed with the Board of Directors that there was a need to enhance governance, ensure robust succession planning, and focus on business stability and continuity. As part of our agreed improvement program, we introduced a revised and updated Board Committee structure. The Nomination and Compensation Committee (NCC) was split into two distinct bodies: the Nomination and Governance Committee (NGC) and the Remuneration Committee (RemCo). This is designed to ensure that talent, leadership development and governance are a clear focus with a dedicated body to ensure best practice. The majority of Board members now serve on two of our four Board Committees, ensuring closer engagement with the business in areas relevant to their experience and expertise. We have also proposed that Board members’ positions will be reviewed after nine years of service, with the maximum possible tenure set at twelve years.
In this period of transition, we have agreed to maintain the role of Lead Independent Director to ensure open communications with our investors. Furthermore, Board member skills will be reviewed regularly and enhanced by ongoing Board education to ensure the Board is set up to serve Lonza’s business today and in the future. Such updates have been designed to improve Board understanding and create a closer connection between the Board and business. This will enable the Board to fulfil its primary function – to support and challenge Lonza to bring and be its best.
In 2024, we partnered with a third party to evaluate and advise on Board dynamics. This positive collaboration has promoted greater self-awareness across the Board and improved alignment in our ways of working. We have also developed our first ever Board skills matrix (see page 198 of the PDF report), which maps Board member capabilities. These important strategic evaluations have helped us to find opportunities to increase inclusion, improve complementarity and add relevant skills and experience to our Board composition.
In line with our skills matrix, we have identified three potential new Board members with experience and expertise that is highly relevant to our business and industry. For election at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2025, we will propose: Juan Andres (formerly President, Strategic Partnerships and Enterprise Expansion at Moderna), Eric Drapé (formerly EVP, Head of Global Operations, Company Officer and Member of the Executive Committee at Teva Pharmaceuticals), and David Meline (formerly CFO of 3M, Amgen and Moderna, and Chair of the Finance, Audit and Compliance Committee for ABB). All three have previously worked for companies that have partnered with Lonza, which brings a valuable new customer understanding to our Board. They also bring manufacturing experience alongside a global perspective and important non-executive experience as seasoned Board members.
At the same time, Olivier Verscheure has decided not to stand for re-election after serving on the Board since 2018. On behalf of the Board, I would like to sincerely thank Olivier for his valuable contributions to Lonza over his seven years of service. Specifically, I wish to acknowledge his impressive knowledge and scientific experience in technology and artificial intelligence, which has proved to be highly relevant and valuable to our business.
Sustainable value creation is an ethical, social and commercial imperative for Lonza, and a collective responsibility shared across our global team. Our corporate responsibility is incorporated into the company's governance structures and remuneration policies. This ensures that the entire Lonza colleague community is committed to creating value by supporting our communities, making active social contributions, and reducing our environmental footprint.
In February 2024, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) validated our near-term greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction targets, which are designed to advance our ambition of achieving net-zero by 2050 or earlier. Half of our electricity production is already procured from renewable sources, supported by renewable power agreements in the EU and China, and we have worked to increase this further with agreements in the US. These support our ambition to purchase all electricity from renewable sources where available.
The confidence of our investor community has been instrumental as we have focused on making strategic changes that secure our capability to deliver lasting value for our people, our shareholders, our customers and their patients. Reflecting our commitment to delivering value to our shareholders, we have added a Chair’s Roadshow and a Remuneration Roadshow to the annual investor schedule as a means of maintaining close connections with this important community.
For our shareholders, the Board of Directors proposes to maintain a dividend of CHF 4.00 per share. Subject to approval at the upcoming AGM, 50% of the dividend will be paid out of the capital contribution reserve, ensuring it remains free from Swiss withholding tax.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would also like to take this chance to express my sincere thanks to all our stakeholders for their continued trust and support during a year of positive transformation for Lonza. Specifically, I would like to thank the global Lonza colleague community for the warm welcome they have shown me, and their support and dedication in delivering our business in 2024. I look forward to continuing to our journey, as we drive structured and sustainable growth, innovation and excellence in the years ahead
Chair of the Board of Directors
