Borealis has announced the appointment of Rainer Höfling as CEO of its International Fertilizer & Melamine business, as of 1st October 2018. This business unit comprises approximately 2,000 employees. The dedicated management team under the lead of Rainer Höfling will provide higher agility and increased customer focus for the business. Borealis runs fertilizer production sites in Austria, France, the Netherlands and Belgium and melamine production in Austria and Germany.
Former Danish Minister of Climate, Energy, and Gender Equality, Lykke Friis , has been elected to the Blue World Technologies’ board of directors. The company says that she will support its “journey towards providing a strong green alternative to combustion engines and diesel generators for industries around the world.”
The International Fertilizer Association (IFA) says that Svein Tore Holsether has been elected as its new chair of the Association. IFA said in its press release that the selection of Holsether, the president and CEO of Yara International, is a continuation of the industry’s commitment to sustainability.
Hans Vrijenhoef has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Proton Ventures with immediate effect. He will continue to serve as non-executive chairman of the management board for at least another three years to support the growth of the existing business of green ammonia production technologies. Paul Baan succeeded Hans Vrijenhoef as of April 1st, 2021. Baan has served in leadership positions at Ørsted and EON. He is an engineer by background who has a strong understanding of Power to X technology and business cases.
Bodo Albrecht, BASF writes: Among the many sad news of 2020 is the passing of Alan Heywood, a leading authority in the advancement of nitric acid catalysts and recovery systems. At the time I first met Alan in 1997, he already had 6 patents to his name ranging from improved aircraft gas turbine igniters and “ZGS” grain stabilized precious metal composite materials to PGPs “cartridge” catalyst, arguably the first true catalyst system ever produced.
Clariant, says that Conrad Keijzer become its new chief executive officer as of January 1st, 2021. Interim executive chairman Hariolf Kottmann has thus returned to his position as chairman of the board. Keijzer is a Dutch citizen with a long track record in the chemical industry, including 24 years with leading global paints and coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel, where he was CEO of the Performance Coatings Division and a member of the Executive Committee. Most recently, Conrad Keijzer was CEO of Imerys, a French supplier of mineral-based specialty solutions.
The UK Agricultural Industries Confederation has announced that Sam Bell , UK Commercial Director at CF Industries and Nick Major , Corporate Affairs Director at ForFarmers have taken over as chairs for the AIC’s Fertiliser Executive Committee and Feed Executive Committee, respectively.
SensoTech has announced a high level management restructuring which represents a generational change in leadership. Robert Benecke and Hannes Benecke, sons of the founder Dr. Ingo Benecke have become the company’s new managing directors with immediate effect, replacing Dr. Ingo Benecke and SensoTech co-founder Mathias Bode, who have run the company for 30 years, developing and producing sonic velocity measuring instruments for liquid analysis which can be found in numerous industrial plants around the globe.
IFA has announced the appointment of its Senior Director of Agriculture, Patrick Heffer , as the organisation’s Interim Director General as of May 1st. A formal search process for the next Director General has already been launched. Previous IFA Director General Charlotte Hebebrand stepped down at the end of April to assume a new role as Executive Vice-President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Nutrien, and says that she looks forward to continuing engagement with IFA.
CRU has announced the appointment of William Etchell as Chief Financial Officer, based in the company’s London headquarters. Etchell joins CRU from GUS Holdings, a global higher education provider. Previously, he was CFO at EPG, an education services provider, and prior to that he was Group Finance Director at BPP Professional Education Group. He has over 25 years’ experience working in finance across a variety of sectors, having qualified with Arthur Andersen in the 1990s. Since then he has worked in a number of organisations including British Airways, Time Warner and Interpublic Group, as well as running his own nursery school business.