People

People

Clariant has announced that Stephan Lynen will be appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of the company as of April 1st, 2020. Lynen is currently head of the Clariant’s Additives business unit, and has served with the company for more than 20 years in various international general management and business roles. He will succeed Patrick Jany who will be leaving to pursue a career opportunity outside of Clariant as CFO of A.P. Moller-Maersk, a global leader in shipping services.

“We are very pleased that Stephan Lynen will join the executive committee as CFO of Clariant,” said Hariolf Kottmann, Executive Chairman of Clariant. “With his vast business experience, his general management skills and his vast expertise in finance, he has the perfect profile for this important role. Drawing on his outstanding ability in strategy implementation and his broad knowledge of our customers, he will play a leading role in shaping the Clariant of the future. At the same time, we very much regret Patrick Jany’s decision to leave Clariant. Patrick Jany has been with our company for 25 years and has played a major role in our success story. He joined Clariant after a successful career at Sandoz, and has helped shape the development of our company from the very beginning. We wish him all the best for his future endeavors as CFO of A.P. Moller-Maersk.”

During Patrick Jany’s tenure as CFO since 2006, Clariant has gone through several structural changes, including a fundamental restructuring of the company, the acquisition of Süd-Chemie and recently the repositioning of the company.

Clariant’s board of directors has also proposed Nader Ibrahim Alwehibi and Thilo Mannhardt for election to the board at its Annual General Meeting. The nominees will replace current board members Khaled Homza A. Nahas and Carlo G. Soave. Alwehibi, an insurance expert, is a member of SABIC’s board of directors and serves on its Audit and Risk and Sustainability Committees. Mannhardt, who has lived in Latin America for many years, holds several board memberships in Brazil and has many years of experience as a management consultant and CEO of a listed Brazilian chemical and pharmaceutical company.

Charlotte Hebebrand, Director General of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), will end her term with the organisation on May 1st. IFA’s Senior Director of the Agriculture Service, Patrick Heffer, will serve as interim Director General as of 1 May, until a new permanent Director General can be proposed by IFA’s Board of Directors and approved by the membership at the organisation’s General Meeting, with the aim of having a new person in place by July.

In a farewell letter to IFA’s membership, Charlotte said that it had been “a tremendous privilege” to work with IFA since joining the association in September 2012. “I will forever be grateful for the trust you placed in me, for your engagement to both build and implement IFA’s strategic objectives, and for all the support you have provided to IFA,” she said. The board of directors of Haldor Topsoe has announced the appointment of Roeland Baan as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as from June 1st, 2020. Baan takes over from Bjerne S. Clausen, who will retire in June after more than 40 years with the company, including more than eight years as CEO. Since 2016, Roeland Baan has been President and CEO of the global stainless steel company Outokumpu. Previously, he held a wide range of global CEO and executive vice president (EVP) positions at Aleris International, Arcelor Mittal, SHV NV and Shell. He is Vice Chairman of the International Stainless Steel Forum and member of the Executive Committee of Eurofer. He also serves as a supervisory board member of SBM Offshore NV and as an independent board member of Norsk Hydro ASA. Mr. Baan is a citizen of The Netherlands and holds a MSc in Economics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Bjerne S. Clausen commented: “I have had an amazing journey here at Topsoe, worked on a vast variety of exciting projects, worked with some of the sharpest brains in the field of catalysis and chemistry, and met customers and partners around the globe. I cannot imagine a more rewarding career. I welcome Roeland Baan to the company. He has come to a great company with dedicated and passionate colleagues.”

The Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) has appointed Andrew Pearson as its Policy Manager. His role will involve working across all five sectors of AIC, analysing the latest information and data in order to develop solutions for the most pressing issues facing agri-supply businesses and UK agriculture. Taking over from Dave Freeman, Andrew brings extensive experience and expertise from his time as a land quality and estates manager for over seven years, and work as a Contaminated Land Officer and Environmental Health Technician.