Clariant International Appoints Dr. Hariolf Kottmann CEO

The Board of Directors of Clariant International Ltd. appointed Dr. Hariolf Kottmann as its new CEO, effective Oct. 1, 2008. He replaces Jan Secher, who plans to pursue new activities outside of Clariant.
    
“Jan Secher has laid the foundation for the new direction of the group,” said Dr. Juerg Witmer, chairman of the board of Clariant. “The Board of Directors expresses its thanks and recognition for the major achievements in the restructuring of Clariant under his leadership.
    
“Dr. Hariolf Kottmann has broad leadership experience in the specialty chemicals industry and an outstanding track record in successfully improving the performance of existing businesses as well as building up new business opportunities,” Dr. Witmer added. “Our objective is to substantially improve the performance of the Clariant group and to leverage Clariant’s potential on the basis of a cohesive business portfolio, a global resource base as well as a professional team of business leaders. The Board of Directors is convinced that this will lead to a sustainable enhancement of the value of Clariant.”
    
Dr. Kottmann earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Stuttgart in 1984. In 1985, he started his career at the corporate R&D center of the former Hoechst AG in Frankfurt. He assumed increasing responsibilities in various chemical divisions of the company, functions such as research and development, production and technologies, controlling as well as in the central staff department of the Hoechst board of management.
    
In 1996, he was appointed deputy to the division head of the Basic Chemicals division at Hoechst AG and took responsibility for the business unit Inorganic Chemicals. In 1998, he moved to Summit, NJ as a member of the Executive Committee and head of the organic chemicals business of Celanese Ltd, a spin-off of Hoechst.
    
In April 2001, Dr. Kottmann was appointed member of the Executive Committee of SGL Carbon AG in Wiesbaden. In this function, he was responsible for the Clariant International Ltd Group Advanced Materials division and Eastern Europe and Asia. He is also in charge of the corporate functions SGL Excellence as well as Technology and Innovation.