Axel Heitmann to leave Lanxess, replacement named
27/01/2014
The announcement came on Sunday, January 26.
Dr Heitmann worked in the rubber business unit at Bayer throughout the 1990s and rose to become its head in 2002. In 2004, when Bayer spun off business units including leather and rubber to form Lanxess, Dr Heitmann was named as the new company’s first chief executive.
He began a new five-year mandate in July 2012 and as recently as March 2013, on announcing the company’s results for 2012, he said Lanxess had had “the best year in our growth story so far”, with sales rising by 4% to EUR 9.1 billion.
However, in the January 26 announcement, the chairman of the company’s supervisory board, Rolf Stomberg, said: “Lanxess is facing significant challenges, for example in terms of market capacities and business portfolio. Therefore, the supervisory board believes it is the right time to hand over responsibility to a new leadership.”
His successor will be Matthias Zachert, former chief financial officer of Lanxess (please see separate news story).
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