A management overhaul is currently underway at Evolva, the Swiss biotechnology company with a focus on sustainable ingredients. Following the 2020 Annual General Meeting held in January, two new board members will stand for election to the Board of Directors alongside Beat In-Albon who will be proposed as Chairman.
The search for a fourth board member with in-depth biotechnology expertise started as Gerard Hoetmer, the current Chairman of the Board, and Thomas Videbaek have decided not to stand for re-election.
Richard Ridinger, the former CEO of Lonza, as well as Stephan Schindler, currently CFO of Bachem, have been proposed to join the company.
Ridinger is a German national and has extensive leadership experience. He has held numerous leadership functions at Henkel (14 years) and Cognis (11 years). Most recently, Richard Ridinger served as CEO of Lonza Group. His career involved process development, production leadership as well as marketing and product management.
Stephan Schindler, a Swiss national, is the CFO of Bachem Group. He started his career at Hoffmann-La Roche and joined DSM Nutritional Products at the time of the acquisition of the Hoffmann-La Roche’s vitamin business. Schindler has been actively involved in building finance business processes and the integration of the business into DSM.
Evolva HQ in Reinach, Switzerland
“Now that the company has finalised its major transformational change initiative and concentrated its main activities in the Basel area, this is an opportunity to also locate the board and management into closer proximity of the company’s headquarters," said Evolva Chairman Hoetmer.
For Hoetmer, Beat, Stephan and Richard are a perfect fit for the Evolva Board of Directors. "They bring in international business to business experience as well as their local Know-how to contribute to the success of Evolva in delivering the strategic objectives,” he said.
On the executive management level, André Pennartz has been appointed to the management team of Evolva as CFO. He brings extensive financial leadership experience across global companies such as Leica, Nobel Biocare and Danaher.
The COO Scott Fabro will leave Evolva at the end of June 2020 to pursue his career outside of the company.
Evolva CEO Oliver Walker explained the company is making these changes to harness the full strength of Evolva with all key functions centred around the Basel area.
"The focused organisation will support the acceleration of our efforts to reach strategic goals, such as to reach cash break-even latest by the end of 2023 and to fully concentrate on operational execution," Walker explained. "On behalf of the company, I would like to thank Scott for his contributions to Evolva over the past two years,” he concluded.
As Scott Fabro will depart, the existing commercial teams (Flavors & Fragrances, Human Health and Pest Control segments), as well as the supply chain and manufacturing functions, report directly to the CEO. The company is led by the CEO and CFO, supported by functional leaders.
