Changes in Siegfried’s Senior Management Team
Siegfried announces changes in its senior management team: Dr. Christian Dowdeswell, Chief Business Officer Drug Substances, will leave Siegfried at his own request for family reasons. Marianne Späne, currently Chief Business Officer Drug Products, takes over as Chief Business Officer with responsibility for both, Drug Substances and Drug Products. To further strengthen Siegfried’s go-to-market approach, Dr. Klaus Stingl, currently Site Head Zofingen, is appointed Global Head of Business Development and Sales Drug Substances. Dr. Martin Kessler, formerly Chief Transformation Officer at Rentschler, will become Chief Executive Officer of DINAMIQS, a Siegfried company, while the current CEO Dr. Eduard Ayuso will become Chief Technology Officer. Manja Boerman, formerly President Cell, Gene and Protein Therapy at Catalent, joins as a new independent board member of DINAMIQS.
Marianne Späne takes over as Chief Business Officer Drug Substances and Drug Products effective 1 February 2024. Having led both clusters from 2010 to 2023, she is well placed to take on this role and, together with Klaus Stingl and the whole team, further drive Siegfried’s growth. Christian Dowdeswell will step down from his role simultaneously and support the transition over the next months.
In his new capacity as Global Head of Business Development and Sales Drug Substances, effective 1 February 2024, Klaus Stingl becomes member of Siegfried’s Extended Executive Committee and reports to Marianne Späne. Klaus Stingl joined Siegfried in 2016 and held senior management positions since then. He has been instrumental in developing the Zofingen site into a strong pillar of Siegfried’s global manufacturing network. Prior to Siegfried, he held several senior management positions at Evonik Industries including global responsibility for business development and sales of Evonik’s pharma custom manufacturing unit and its methacrylate business. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University of Oldenburg (Germany).
Dr. Wolfgang Wienand, Chief Executive Officer of Siegfried: “While I regret Christian’s decision to leave, I respect his wish to do so and, on behalf of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, wish him all the best for the future. With Marianne and Klaus we are well placed to continue our good momentum in Drug Substances. Both bring strong market knowledge and share a passion for our business and our customers and will contribute to our ambition of building a strong company delivering long-term profitable growth.”
DINAMIQS appoints new CEO and Board Member
Martin Kessler will take over the role as Chief Executive Officer of DINAMIQS as of 1 March 2024. He joins from Rentschler Biopharma SE, where he was Chief Transformation Officer and CEO of Rentschler’s biopharma business in the US. Prior to that, he led the medical products operations service line in Europe at McKinsey & Company. Martin Kessler holds a Ph.D. in engineering from the Berlin Institute of Technology (Germany).
Eduard Ayuso, who led DINAMIQS as CEO since its inception, will become Chief Technology Officer. Together, Martin and Eduard will drive the future development of DINAMIQS and successfully position Siegfried in the strongly growing Cell & Gene Therapy space.
Manja Boerman joins as an independent non-executive member and will strengthen DINAMIQS’ Board of Directors with her extensive experience in biologics and cell and gene therapies. Until the end of 2023, she served as President Cell, Gene and Protein Therapy at Catalent Pharma Solutions in Somerset, NJ (US), after having held several positions with increasing responsibility at Catalent since 2019. Before joining Catalent, she worked, amongst others, as Executive Director for the global biologics business of Charles Rivers Laboratories in Boston (US) and as President Pharmaceuticals at Aesica Pharmaceuticals in Hemel Hempstead (UK). Manja Boerman holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the State University in Buffalo (US).
Wolfgang Wienand: “Manja and Martin bring a wealth of knowledge in their respective fields to DINAMIQS. With Martin’s experience in driving transformations, Manja’s deep understanding of the Cell and Gene therapy market, and Eduard as a leading scientific and technical expert in the field, I am confident that we are well on track to build the base for future growth of Siegfried also in the highly attractive gene therapy space.”
About Siegfried
The Siegfried Group is a global life sciences company with sites in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Malta, the USA and China. In 2022, the company achieved sales of 1.229 billion Swiss francs and employed on 31.12.2022 more than 3’600 people at eleven sites on three continents. Siegfried Holding AG is publicly listed on SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: SFZN).
Siegfried is active in manufacturing pharmaceutical APIs (and their intermediates) as well as drug products (tablets, capsules, sterile vials, ampoules, cartridges and ointments) for the pharmaceutical industry and provides development services.
About DINAMIQS
DINAMIQS, a Siegfried company, is a science-driven Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) offering end-to-end viral vector manufacturing solutions. DINAMIQS offers a comprehensive and customized range of manufacturing services, process development, quality control and analytics solutions for genetic medicine companies. It is located in Schlieren-Zurich Bio-Technopark in Switzerland.
