Ghasemi to Head Rockwood

Rockwood Specialties, Inc. announced that Seifi Ghasemi has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the Princeton, NJ-based company. The post had been vacant since the businesses that comprise Rockwood were acquired from Laporte plc in November 2000 by its senior management and the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Mr. Ghasemi joins Rockwood from GKN plc, where he was a member of the board of directors and chief executive officer of GKN’s powder metallurgy business.