Bachem makes management changes
To take effect in April 2012
Due to statutory restrictions Peter Grogg, chairman, and board member Gottlieb Knoch will not stand for re-election. Proposals to elect Kuno Sommer as the new chairman and Rolf Nyfeler as a new member will therefore be put forward at the next general meeting in April 2012. The board also plans to nominate Peter Grogg as its honorary chairman.
Nyfeler will relinquish his executive position as chief executive of the Bachem Group on the same date. The board has named Thomas Frueh, currently chief operating officer of Bachem AG in Bubendorf, the group's largest subsidiary, as his successor and designated chief executive of the Bachem Group.
Sommer worked for Roche from 1986–1999 in various functions, including four years in the US. He was ultimately a member of Roche’s executive committee, responsible for the Flavours and Fragrances division, now called Givaudan.
From 2000–2006 he was ceo of Berna Biotech, a listed global vaccine player, which was sold to Crucell in 2006 (now Johnson & Johnson). Since 2006 he has served as chairman of the board of Kenta Biotech, a start-up company in the field of monoclonal antibodies against infectious diseases. In his last executive position Sommer headed the contract research division of Harlan Laboratories.
Nyfeler has been ceo of the Bachem Group and chairman of the corporate executive committee since 1 May 2002. He joined Bachem AG in 1982.
Nyfeler managed Bachem’s research and development activities for an extensive period and then served as production manager at the California subsidiary before being appointed coo of the parent company in 1998.
Frueh started his career as a research chemist with CIBA. He worked in Japan for four years as project manager for CIBA and was subsequently promoted to department head at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland. In 1997 he joined the Bachem Group. As head of a production department he gained experience in manufacturing peptides before taking up the position of general manager of the Bachem site in King of Prussia, PA, US.
After completion of an additional programme of study in business and economics at the IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, he was appointed coo of Bachem AG.
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