People on the Move Changes of Management at OMV, Merck, Nouryon, BASF, Adare, Kemira, and Graco

The latest recruitment news from the process industry starts with a bang. In addition, there are some rotational changes and strategic new hires to report. PROCESS worldwide summarises the news from the executive floors for you.

Würzburg/Germany — OMV Chairman and CEO Rainer Seele has informed Supervisory Board Chairman Mark Garrett that he will not make use of the extension option for another year. His current term of office will thus automatically end on 30 June 2022. The company did not give reasons for the move. However, Seele has recently come under pressure. As reported by the news agency dpa, OMV is accused by Greenpeace of spying on environmental activists in New Zealand. In the process, private homes of environmentalists were also observed and tracking devices were attached to Greenpeace cars, according to the accusation. OMV, which had been searching for natural gas and oil off the coast of the island state, has denied the accusations. Austria's Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) had demanded a quick clarification by the company.

Merck: Oschmann to Be Succeeded by Garijo

Darmstadt (dpa) - Shortly before the change of leadership at the Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck, CEO Stefan Oschmann appeared before the shareholders for the last time. With his successor Belén Garijo, who will lead the Dax company from 1 May, Merck is “in very good hands”, Oschmann said on Friday at the virtual general meeting. Garijo will then be the first woman to head a Dax company alone.

Oschmann's successor, who has a medical degree and is deputy head of Merck, was born in 1960 in Almansa, Spain. Garijo joined Merck in 2011 and was promoted to head of the pharmaceuticals division in 2015. Under her leadership, the company, which employs around 58,000 people worldwide, realigned its pharmaceuticals portfolio.

Oschmann is leaving Merck as planned after ten years on the executive board, five of them as CEO. When he started at Merck, the stock market value of the family-owned company was about € 13 billion, Oschmann said. Now it is over € 60 billion. Most recently, the takeover of the US semiconductor supplier Versum, with which Merck entered the chip and electronics industry, had provided a boost. Shareholders are to receive a dividend of € 1.40 per share for 2020.

Deutsche Bank fund subsidiary DWS said Merck was in a robust position. Oschmann has positioned the world's oldest pharmaceutical company for the future. However, the supervisory board lacked independence. The chairman of the supervisory board, Wolfgang Büchele, has been a member of the supervisory body for more than ten years, which means that he no longer meets the independence standard from DWS's point of view.

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Julie Aslaksen Joins Nouryon's Board of Directors

Specialty chemicals company Nouryon announced the appointment of Julie Aslaksen to its Board of Directors, effective April 21, 2021. Aslaksen brings more than 20 years of strategic legal and business leadership experience, including extensive experience advising boards of directors and executive leadership teams. She is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc., an S&P 500 company and the largest lodging real estate investment trust in the United States. Previously, she spent over 16 years serving in a variety of legal roles at General Dynamics, most recently as Vice President and General Counsel of General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT).

Digital Incubation Unit of BASF Coatings Under New Leadership

Dominic Rudloff will take over as head of BASF Coatings' Digital Incubation Unit (DIU), which was established at the beginning of 2019, on 1 May 2021. He joins from Siemens Energy in Mülheim an der Ruhr, where he held the position of Head of Digitalisation. The DIU is to identify market-changing trends in the field of mobility and, based on these, develop digital business models that expand the company's core business with surface solutions.

Rudloff worked for Siemens for twelve years in various functions. In his role as Head of Digitalisation at Siemens Energy, he primarily drove the digitalisation of business models and processes. When asked about his motivation for joining the DIU team at BASF Coatings, he replies: "At Siemens Energy, I was able to make digitalisation a success factor with a strong and diverse team. I look forward to now bringing my experience to BASF Coatings in a new and exciting environment and driving digitalisation together with the DIU team."

People on the Move

Hutchinson, Kuraray, Neste, Gilead, Nova and Mitsubishi Chemical Announce Changes to Management

Adare Pharma Solutions Appoints Ludger Roedder as President

Ludger Roedder is the new president of Adare Biome. As Adare is committed to growing its Pharma Solutions and Microbiome businesses, he is expected to help solidify Adare Biome's position as a major player in human and animal health and nutrition. In the newly created position of president, he is expected to take responsibility for the entire microbiome business and serve as a member of Adare's executive leadership team.

Roedder brings more than 30 years of global business and marketing leadership experience to Adare, with expertise in animal and human nutrition, including probiotics and enzymes. He has successfully led company growth through commercial development and successful mergers and acquisitions in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States in both animal and human nutrition. Prior to joining Adare Biome, he was Chief Business Officer at Brain AG, where he was responsible for commercialising the business on a global scale and served as a member of the Executive Board. Ludger was instrumental in creating significant value for the company by realigning Brain's market focus and expanding the organisation's scalable products. Prior to this, Ludger held various positions of increasing responsibility at BASF Corporation from 2005-2018.

Kemira Names Terhi Kivinen as Chief Communications Officer

Kemira has appointed Terhi Kivinen as chief communications officer of Kemira Oyj, effective 1 May 2021. Kivinen joined the Finnish company in March 2020 as director of global communications and stakeholder relations. Prior to joining Kemira, she worked for a long time in communications, IR, sustainability and marketing in international and Finnish organisations. In her new role, she will report to Jari Rosendal, President & CEO of Kemira Oyj.

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Graco Names New Treasurer and President of its Worldwide Process Division

The Board of Directors of Graco has named David M. Lowe Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and Timothy R. White President of its Worldwide Process Division, effective June 10, 2021. The moves are in alignment with Mark W. Sheahan moving from the CFO and Treasurer role to the President and CEO role on June 10.

Lowe joined Graco in 1995 and has held numerous senior management positions including President of the Worldwide Process Division since April 2020; President of the Worldwide Industrial Products Division from June 2018 until April 2020; Executive Vice President of the Industrial Products Division from April 2012 until June 2018; Vice President and General Manager of the Industrial Products Division from February 2005 to April 2012; Vice President and General Manager of European Operations from September 1999 to February 2005; and more, including Treasurer. Mr. Lowe holds a bachelor’s degree in Business and Administration Studies from Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, an MBA from the University of Michigan and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

White has held a variety of operational and commercial roles in multiple business divisions since he joined the Company in 1992. Most recently, he has served as President of White Knight and QED Environmental Systems, businesses acquired by Graco that serve high-growth markets, since August 2020. He also recently served as President of the EMEA region from December 2018 through July 2020. Prior to moving to Belgium to lead the region, Mr. White was President of QED Environmental Systems from August 2015 to December 2018. Mr. White holds a bachelor’s degree in Operations Management and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

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