Pierre-Alain Ruffieux Joins Cytiva as COO, Sets Sights on Asia Pacific Growth

On July 1, 2024, Cytiva significantly bolstered its leadership team by appointing Pierre-Alain Ruffieux as Chief Operating Officer. Bringing a wealth of experience from his tenure as CEO of Lonza and Head of Global Pharma Technical Operations at Roche, Pierre-Alain is set to enhance Cytiva’s operational capabilities and customer experience.

In an exclusive interview with BioSpectrum Asia, Pierre-Alain discusses his motivations for joining Cytiva, the strategic importance of the newly created COO role, and his vision for Cytiva’s growth in the Asia Pacific region.

Why have you accepted the role of COO at Cytiva?

I’m honored to join Cytiva in this role. Cytiva's commitment to advancing bioprocessing technologies and improving lives worldwide resonates deeply with my personal passion for innovation and operational excellence. 

As a former customer of Cytiva, I've always admired the exceptional quality and reliability of Cytiva’s products and services. With this firsthand experience, and working closely with Cytiva’s talented team, I look forward to further enhancing our customer experience. 

This role is newly created. So why does Cytiva need a COO at this point?

Since its inception as a Danaher company in 2020, Cytiva has combined with Pall Life Sciences and now provides the industry’s broadest bioprocessing portfolio to researchers and manufacturers of life-saving therapies. Today, Cytiva’s global operations and supply chain processes an average of 30 000 orders per month, providing customers with critical technologies and services across more than 80 countries.

So, we have significant improvement opportunities in how we put our customers’ needs first. We must continue our on-time delivery improvement trajectory and strengthen confidence in Cytiva’s ability to deliver customers’ expectations. We must also maintain our focus on Quality – while we are getting better, we have work ahead of us.

The role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) will support more effective customer engagement across our combined portfolio, to focus on delivering a superb customer experience, own the operationalization of these initiatives and the teams that lead them.

I’m also very enthusiastic about learning and using the Danaher Business System to enhance operational excellence and provide even greater value to our customers. In addition, I believe I can bring a unique perspective as a former customer to Cytiva.

What major plans are in store for Cytiva in Asia Pacific over the next 3 years? Will there be a change in strategy?

My appointment doesn’t signify a change in strategy. Instead, Cytiva remains committed to our mission to support customers as they advance and accelerate therapeutics globally.

Specifically in Asia Pacific, which is a fast-growing region, addressing the long-term needs of the biopharma industry here, and helping our customers deliver in-region for region manufacturing has been, and will continue to be Cytiva’s long-term strategy. 

That is why we continue to invest in capabilities in the region, such as with our manufacturing facility and experience center in Pune, India, and our training facility in Shanghai, China. 

Note from BioSpectrum Asia's Team

( ankit.kankar@mmactiv.com )