Pittsburgh
March 7, 2002
The
Supervisory Board of Bayer AG announced today that Dr. Attila
Molnar (53) will become President of Bayer Corporation and
Senior Bayer Executive for the USA, succeeding Helge H. Wehmeier
(59), who will retire from the company after more than 35 years
of service, effective July 1, 2002. Bayer Corporation is the
U.S. subsidiary of Bayer Group of Germany, a $29 billion
international life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals
group.
Molnar is currently a member of the Bayer AG Board of
Management. He worked for Bayer in the United States on two
previous occasions. Prior to his appointment to the Board, he
was General Manager of the company's global Organic Chemicals
(now Basic and Fine Chemicals) Business Group.
To assist Molnar and the entire organization with the leadership
transition for Bayer in the U.S., Wehmeier has accepted an
interim position of Vice Chair of Bayer Corporation, a
non-executive position. Wehmeier has held the top U.S. post
since 1991.
Molnar was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management in
1999. On the board he is responsible for the Agriculture
business segment, the representative for North America and
Mexico as well as the Chairman of the Central Committee for
Environmental Protection and Safety. He is also Labor Director.
Molnar was born on August 17, 1948, in Thalmaessing, Bavaria,
Germany. He obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Erlangen
University and joined Bayer AG on March 1, 1978, as a plant
manager at the company's Leverkusen site. Two years later he
moved to Bayer's U.S. subsidiary, known at the time as Mobay,
where he worked in Polyurethanes manufacturing in New
Martinsville, W.Va., and Baytown, Texas. He returned to Germany
in 1983 as manager of the company's TDI facility in Brunsbuttel.
In 1986, Molnar moved back to the U.S. as Regional Production
Manager for Polyurethanes and Coating Raw Materials in Baytown.
In 1988, he moved to the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh
where he was given overall responsibility for Polyurethanes
manufacturing in the U.S. On his return to Leverkusen in 1990 he
was placed in charge of global manufacturing for the Coatings
and Colorants Raw Materials Business Group. In 1992, he also
became Chairman of the Quality Management Steering Committee at
Bayer AG. In 1996, Molnar was appointed General Manager of the
Basic and
Fine Chemicals Business Group.
Molnar and his wife, Patricia, plan to relocate from Germany to
the Pittsburgh area later this year.
On July 1, 1991, Wehmeier became President and CEO of the
holding company Bayer USA Inc., which in 1992 became the
operating company Miles Inc. through the merger of Mobay
Corporation, Agfa Corporation and Miles Inc. The operating
company changed its name to Bayer Corporation in 1995.
Born in 1943 in Goettingen, Germany, Wehmeier joined Bayer AG as
a management trainee at its Leverkusen, Germany, headquarters in
1965 and was transferred to Mobay's New York office in 1969 to
assume responsibility for marketing synthetic fibers in the
United States and Canada. In 1974 he returned to Leverkusen,
from where he ran the fibers marketing organization for
Scandinavia and the British Isles, later becoming General
Manager, based in London, for the fibers business in the UK. In
1984, he was named to head the Industrial Photographic Division
of the Bayer subsidiary Agfa-Gevaert AG and joined their Board
of Management in July 1987 with responsibility for Agfa's
worldwide consumer product business.
Wehmeier was named President and Chief Executive Officer of the
newly formed Agfa Corporation, Ridgefield Park, N.J., in January
1989, and simultaneously elected to the Board of Directors and
Executive Committee of Bayer USA Inc.
Within the chemical industry, Wehmeier is known for his
leadership in the areas of health and safety. Most notable was
his work as a member of the American Chemistry Council Executive
Committee and as chairman of the ACC Board Research Committee,
which launched an innovative initiative on long- range research
into the effects of chemicals on human health and the
environment.
He and his wife, Erika, have two daughters.
Bayer AG top management named
At its meeting today the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG made a
number of additional decisions concerning the company's future
top management. Klaus Kuehn (50), currently Head of Finance, and
Dr. Richard Pott (48), at present General Manager of the
Specialty Products Business Group, will join the company's Board
of Management effective May 1, 2002. Pott will be responsible
for Strategy and Human Resources on the Board of the future
holding company. Kuehn will succeed Werner Wenning (55) as the
member of the Board responsible for Finance. Wenning is due to
take over Dr. Manfred
Schneider's position as Chairman of the Board of Management
following this year's Annual Stockholders' Meeting on April 26.
Schneider (63) will then move to the Supervisory Board, where he
will stand for election as its Chairman after spending ten years
at the helm of the company.
In addition to Werner Wenning as its Chairman, the Management
Board of the new holding company will have four other members:
Dr. Richard Pott (Strategy, Human Resources and Labor Director),
Klaus Kuehn (Finance), Dr. Udo Oels (58, Technology and
Environment), and Werner Spinner (53, Marketing, Regions and
Services).
Dr. Gottfried Zaby (51), regional representative for Europe and
representative for the Chemicals segment on the present Board of
Management, will leave the company by mutual agreement.
The restructuring of the Bayer Group into a management holding
company with four legally independent subgroups and three
service companies is progressing quickly. The intention is to
clearly separate the strategic management from the business
operations and to have the new company operating in its
restructured form from July 1, 2002. The holding company will
officially be established on January 1, 2003.
Board member Dr. Frank Morich (48) will assume another
management function in the new organization effective July 1,
2002. He will become Chairman of the Board of the future Bayer
HealthCare AG, incorporating the current Pharmaceuticals,
Consumer Care, Diagnostics, Biological Products and Animal
Health business groups.
The Bayer Board of Management has appointed the General Manager
of the Coatings & Colorants Business Group, Dr. Ulrich Koemm
(51), as Chairman of the Board of Bayer Chemicals AG, which will
consist of the Basic & Fine Chemicals and Specialty Products
business groups, plus the two subsidiaries H. C. Starck and
Wolff Walsrode.
The Board Chairman of Bayer Polymers AG with its Plastics,
Rubber, Polyurethanes and Coatings & Colorants operations will
be Dr. Hagen Noerenberg (55), who has been General Manager of
the Polyurethanes Business Group since the beginning of this
year.
Dr. Jochen Wulff (62), General Manager of the Crop Protection
Business Group, was recently appointed Chairman of the
Management Board of Bayer CropScience AG, which is to be created
from the merger of Bayer's Crop Protection business with Aventis
CropScience.
The managing directors of the new service companies have also
been decided: Bayer Business Services GmbH, which will look
after all the business and administrative services, will be
managed by Professor Dr. Gottfried Plumpe (52), who is currently
responsible for the Corporate Planning and Controlling Division.
Dr. Wolfram Wagner (58), who currently heads Central Technology,
will become Managing Director of Bayer Technology Services GmbH,
which will look after all the technological services in the
future Group.
Dr. Juergen Hinz (55) will continue in his present function to
head Bayer Standortdienste GmbH & Co. OHG, which will combine
all the services at the German sites.
Bayer AG's Supervisory Board today also agreed to the Board of
Management's suggestion to propose to the Annual Stockholders'
Meeting on April 26, 2002, a dividend for 2001 of EUR 0.90 per
share (previous year: EUR 1.40). With some 730 million shares,
this would represent a payout of EUR 657 million.
Biographies of the new Bayer management are available at
www.press.bayer.com or
www.bayerus.com/about/leaders/index.html.
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