July 2009
New head of Leather business unit from October 1, 2009
Markus Eckert succeeds Bernhard Wehling
Leverkusen– On October 1, 2009, Dr. Markus Eckert (38) will assume global responsibility for the leather chemicals business of specialty chemicals group LANXESS. The current head of the Corporate Development group function will succeed Dr. Bernhard Wehling (59), who is to begin the passive phase of his senior part-time working plan on this date.
PhD chemist Markus Eckert joined the Bayer Group in 1999 as a laboratory manager and project manager in the Research & Development section of the Fine Chemicals Business Unit.He was transferred to Shanghai, where he headed Regional Strategic Planning at Bayer Polymers Asia/Pacific.He was subsequently appointed assistant to the Chairman of the LANXESS Board of Management Board Dr. Axel C. Heitmann and, as a member of the Business Design project team, worked intensively on the establishment of LANXESS as a specialty chemicals group.Since April 1, 2005, he has been head of the Corporate Development group function.
Dr. Bernhard Wehling began his career at Bayer in Leverkusen in 1976. Until 1980 he worked in the Central Scientific Laboratory, where he was involved in the synthesis of optical brighteners and fluorescent dyestuffs. He then spent two years in the special dyeing department, where he was responsible for the coloring of plastics. After that, he worked for a year in chrome research, heading among other things the Applications Development Department for chrome tanning materials. In 1983 Wehling moved to the Marketing Department of the former Bayer Dyestuffs Business Group, latterly holding the post of head of wet operations.
In 1992 Wehling was appointed head of the Dyestuffs and Fibers Division of Bayer South Africa in Johannesburg. In 1995 he moved to Italy to take over as Managing Director of DyStar Italia Srl in Milan. Wehling returned to Leverkusen on April 1, 2001 to head the Fine Chemicals Marketing Department in the Basic and Fine Chemicals Business Group. Since July 2002 Dr. Bernhard Wehling has been head of LANXESS’s Leather business unit.
LANXESS is one of the leading suppliers of systems solutions for the leather industry, from chemicals for all stages of the manufacturing process to intensive technical support. The Leather business unit is part of LANXESS’s Performance Chemicals segment, which posted sales of EUR 1,930 million in fiscal 2008.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 6.58 billion in 2008 and currently around 14,600 employees in 23 countries.The company has operations at 44 sites worldwide.The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
Leverkusen, July 30, 2009
weh/bol (2009-00146e)
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by LANXESS AG management.Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here.The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
Information for editors:
100 years of synthetic rubber – interesting information about the anniversary and the numerous areas of application can be found at www.worldrubberday.com.
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