PITTSBURGH, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- 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
http://www.press.bayer.com or http://www.bayerus.com/about/leaders/index.html.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current
assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group 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. These
factors include those discussed in our public reports filed with the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(including our Form 20-F). The company assumes no liability whatsoever to
update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or
developments.
SOURCE Bayer Corporation
back to top
