Announced change at the management

The Super­vi­so­ry Board of Cove­stro has agreed on an ami­ca­ble retire­ment of Patrick Thomas’ tenure as Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer (CEO) effec­tive May 31, 2018, at today’s meet­ing. Patrick Thomas con­tract as CEO would have orig­i­nal­ly end­ed on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2018. Already in May 2017, Patrick Thomas had informed the Super­vi­so­ry Board that he would not be avail­able for a fur­ther term beyond 2018. Sub­se­quent­ly, the Super­vi­so­ry Board appoint­ed Dr. Markus Steile­mann as his suc­ces­sor as CEO thus ensur­ing con­ti­nu­ity and a smooth transition.
Patrick Thomas has been CEO of the com­pa­ny and its pre­de­ces­sor Bay­er Mate­ri­alScience since 2007. Pri­or to that, he held var­i­ous posi­tions across the chem­i­cals indus­try. Thomas has been tak­ing lead­ing roles in numer­ous indus­try asso­ci­a­tions such as Cef­ic (Con­seil Européen de l’In­dus­trie Chim­ique / Euro­pean Chem­i­cal Coun­cil), WPC (World Plas­tics Coun­cil) and VCI (Ver­band der Chemis­chen Indus­trie). Fur­ther­more, he was pres­i­dent of Plas­tic­sEu­rope from 2011 to 2017. Patrick Thomas is also a mem­ber of the glob­al jury of the ‘Young Cham­pi­ons of the Earth’ com­pe­ti­tion, an ini­tia­tive by the Unit­ed Nations and Cove­stro for young peo­ple to show­case inno­v­a­tive projects to save the environment.
Dr. Markus Steile­mann, cur­rent­ly Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer (CCO), will suc­ceed Patrick Thomas, as announced already in May 2017. With the retire­ment of Patrick Thomas and Dr. Markus Steile­mann becom­ing CEO, the company’s Board of Man­age­ment will con­sist of three mem­bers. Dr. Klaus Schäfer, whose con­tract has been renewed in Jan­u­ary 2018 until the end of 2022, will con­tin­ue to act as Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer (CTO). Dr. Thomas Toepfer, Covestro’s new Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer (CFO), came into office on April 1, 2018.