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.
Clariant has announced that Stephan Lynen will be appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of the company as of April 1st, 2020. Lynen is currently head of the Clariant’s Additives business unit, and has served with the company for more than 20 years in various international general management and business roles. He will succeed Patrick Jany who will be leaving to pursue a career opportunity outside of Clariant as CFO of A.P. Moller-Maersk, a global leader in shipping services.
EuroChem Group has announced the appointment of Samir Brikho as chairman of the company’s board of directors. Brikho has served on the board since 2018. He has also held senior management positions at Asea and ABB Power Generation between 1983 and 2000, before moving to Alstom, where he served as Chief International Operations Officer and Senior Vice-President, and CEO of Alstom Kraftwerke in Germany. In 2003, he became CEO of ABB Lummus Global and in 2005 he was appointed to the Group Executive Committee of ABB Ltd, and served as Head of the Power Systems Division at ABB Group. From 2006 to 2016 he was CEO of Amec Foster Wheeler. In 2009 and 2016 Brikho was chair of the World Economic Forum’s Engineering and Construction Board.