“EPFL taught me about facing challenges”

Pierre-Alain Ruffieux looks back with amusement on one of his first public speaking engagements. It was at EPFL, and it took place when he was in charge of communications at AGEPoly. “It was Welcome Day, and I stood up to address hundreds of new students. I had to be both funny and informative in front of all those faces – it wasn’t easy!” Recollections such as this one are also a measure of how far Ruffieux has traveled since his time at EPFL, where he earned a Master’s degree and a PhD in chemical engineering. Today, he is the CEO of Lonza, a Swiss company with some 15,000 employees and annual sales of over four billion Swiss francs.

Ruffieux was drawn to the pharmaceutical industry early on. He began his career in 1998 at Serono, a company with which he had come into contact during his doctoral studies. “It was a critical time for me,” he says. “First, because I had to complete my thesis at night and on weekends in tandem with my work. And second, because everything moved faster than in academia.” After various positions in production and quality control at Sandoz and then Novartis, he joined Roche, where in 2017 he was appointed head of Global Pharma Technical Operations. He was named CEO of Lonza in November 2020. That company, which specializes in outsourcing for the biopharmaceutical industry, has a worldwide presence and offers flexible, state-of-the-art, high-capacity production facilities to industry giants and smaller companies alike.

Learning from the pandemic

Although Lonza has been involved in the large-scale production of treatments since it was founded, the pandemic was a real eye-opener, putting the spotlight on the company’s impact on society. Its partnership with Moderna for the COVID-19 vaccine has already resulted in Lonza producing millions of doses. “Quickly generating what the industry needs is our core business, but this is the first time that our capacity has been tested on such a scale,” says Ruffieux. “It’s still amazing to see how far we have come, less than a year and a half after the pandemic began.”

No matter what technical challenges he faces as CEO, for Ruffieux the human dimension is central. “My primary responsibility is to create a positive environment where my teams can be productive,” he says. He believes EPFL set him on the right path for this, through his experiences with different associations, as well as his work with Professor Urs von Stockar, his thesis advisor. “He was a real mentor for me, not only in terms of scientific expertise, but also in how he taught me the value of intellectual honesty and mutual support.” More generally, Ruffieux’s years at EPFL remain a touchstone for someone who has gone on to have a top-flight career. “EPFL taught me about facing challenges,” he says. “With time, I have also come to understand how fortunate I was to be able to study here – something that I didn’t fully grasp when I was a student. The resources available at EPFL, from the professors to the campus and facilities, are simply extraordinary.”

Having had the opportunity to study at EPFL, Ruffieux now wants to give back to new generations of alumni. He urges those Master’s students on the verge of graduating not to get stuck in their comfort zone during their career. “Stay curious! Careers that go from point A to point B are becoming increasingly rare. Don’t be afraid of change: it can help you grow.”