Markus Kede has been appointed Lundbeck’s first Chief AI Officer (CAIO), a newly created role aimed at accelerating the company’s ambition to become ‘bionic’. Kede, who currently leads finance and business planning for Lundbeck in the US, will assume the role on 1 July 2026 and will report directly to President and CEO Charl van Zyl.
Driving the transformation
The appointment is tied to the company’s “focused innovator” strategy, which seeks to combine human expertise with high-performance computing, giving it a ‘bionic’ approach. The strategy aims to help overcome longstanding challenges in brain health research by using AI to better target complex neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Speaking when the roadmap was first announced, Claus Thomsen, Senior Vice President, Global IT, Lundbeck, said: “By integrating AI into our daily processes, we’re unlocking new levels of efficiency and innovation, bringing science and technology together to improve outcomes for people living with brain disorders.”
Central to this mission are three technological pillars:
- Generative AI integration: Through a partnership with OpenAI, Lundbeck is rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise globally to help synthesise large datasets and streamline drug development and commercial decision-making.
- Advanced molecular design: A collaboration with Iambic Therapeutics aims to use AI models to predict protein–ligand structures, enabling the in silico design of small molecules for “undruggable” neurological receptors.
- High-performance computing: Lundbeck is also among the first companies to leverage the Gefion supercomputer. The partnership, which launched last May, supports large-scale simulations that were previously computationally impossible.
A new era of leadership
By creating a specific CAIO role, Lundbeck is signalling that AI is now a core pillar of its corporate identity.
“AI is not only about technology implementation. It is about transforming how we think, decide and execute across our entire value chain,” said Charl van Zyl, President and CEO, Lundbeck. “Markus brings the enterprise mindset and proven track record needed to embed AI into our business in a responsible and value-creating way.”
Thanks to his background in finance and his leadership of the company’s Digital & AI Strategy Committee in the US, Kede is well-positioned to ensure that AI initiatives translate into measurable clinical and commercial value.
