Werner Wenning (62), Bayer AG CEO since 2002, is to extend his contract of service by eight months to September 30, 2010, a few weeks before his 64th birthday. In its meeting on Tuesday, Bayer’s Supervisory Board appointed Netherlands-born Dr. Marijn E. Dekkers (51), currently President and CEO of U.S. laboratory equipment manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., to succeed Wenning as CEO from October 1, 2010. Dekkers will join the Bayer Management Board on January 1, 2010. In a transition phase he will also serve as CEO of Bayer HealthCare, succeeding Arthur J. Higgins (52) who has decided to leave the company during the first half of 2010 for personal reasons. Higgins was appointed Chairman of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee on July 1, 2004, and has been CEO of Bayer HealthCare AG since January 1, 2006.

Following the Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 30, 2010, the present CFO Klaus Kühn will take early retirement at the age of 58. The Supervisory Board has appointed Werner Baumann (46), currently a member of both the Board of Management and Executive Committee of Bayer HealthCare, to be Kühn’s successor. Baumann will also join the Bayer Management Board on January 1, 2010.

“Mr. Wenning has very successfully steered our company for the past seven years. We are grateful to him for consenting to extend his contract of service, thereby ensuring both continuity and an adequate period of transition in these economically difficult times,” stated Dr. Manfred Schneider, Chairman of the Bayer Supervisory Board. “The Supervisory Board believes that, in Dr. Dekkers, it has found a highly qualified successor to steer the fortunes of our company. His international experience, goal-oriented approach and proven management skills are very convincing qualities.”

Thomas de Win, Chairman of the Central Works Council of Bayer AG and Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board, also expressed his satisfaction with the succession procedure. “A structured transition has been ensured by extending Mr. Wenning’s contract of service. From the employees’ point of view, we would have welcomed a longer extension as Mr. Wenning has worked closely with employee representatives over the past years to implement tremendous changes successfully and in a socially responsible manner. Following my first meeting with his successor, I am very confident that Dr. Dekkers will continue this proven approach. Bayer’s employees will support him to the best
of their ability.”  

Commenting on the retirement of CFO Klaus Kühn, Dr. Schneider said: “We greatly regret the departure of Klaus Kühn who is a highly competent and respected CFO. However, we respect his decision to pursue a new route in life.”

Arthur J. Higgins is also leaving Bayer at his own request. “Over the past five years, Mr. Higgins has played a key role in realigning and strengthening our health care business. For this he deserves our thanks and appreciation,” said Werner Wenning.

Dr. Marijn E. Dekkers

In Dr. Dekkers, who holds both Dutch and U.S. citizenship, Bayer is gaining as its CEO a highly experienced international manager.

Born on September 22, 1957 in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg, Dekkers studied chemistry at the universities of Nijmegen and Eindhoven on graduating from high school. As his father was the general manager of a large textile company, he recognized at an early stage the significance of international experience in career progression. 

Immediately after completing his Ph.D. studies in 1985, the future Bayer CEO moved to the United States to start his career in research at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. At that time, this company’s R&D center employed 2,000 scientists and was one of the oldest and most respected research facilities in North America. Dekkers originally planned this position only as a way station en route to a university professorship. However, he enjoyed working in industry so much that he stayed.

Two years later, he returned to the Netherlands to work at the GE Plastics research facility in Bergen op Zoom. When the post of his former U.S. supervisor became vacant in 1988, he recrossed the Atlantic to head polymer materials research in the United States. During this time he was elected “Technologist of the Year” at GE Plastics and contributed to 30 patents.

Dr. Dekkers held management positions in various other polymers units at GE before moving to AlliedSignal (subsequently Honeywell International Inc.) in 1995. For four years he subsequently headed this company’s Specialty Films and Fluorine Chemicals business groups based in Morristown, New Jersey, moving in 1999 to head Electronic Materials in San Jose in California’s Silicon Valley. This business group manufactures electronic components, supplying companies such as Intel and Cisco.

In 2000, Marijn Dekkers was offered the position of Chief Operating Officer with Boston-based Thermo Electron Corporation, one of the world’s leading specialists in the manufacture of laboratory instruments such as chromatographs and mass spectrometers used in life science research. The offer included the perspective of becoming the company’s CEO at a later date - and thus began a nine-year success story. Within a short time, Dekkers implemented a complete corporate reorganization and, when he became President and CEO as planned in 2002, the company had a workforce of 11,000 with sales of USD 2.2 billion.

In his role as CEO he initiated further extensive restructuring measures, divesting various organizational units and strengthening the company’s core business by means of targeted acquisitions, including the purchase in 2006 of the significantly larger laboratory consumables supplier Fisher Scientific. Dekkers thereby created a company which now employs 35,000 people in six business groups and generates annual sales of USD 10.5 billion.

Two years ago, Marijn Dekkers was also elected to the Board of Directors of Biogen Idec, one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with offices in 27 countries.

Dr. Dekkers is married to an American and has three daughters. As a student, he was one of the best tennis players in the Netherlands, playing on a semi-professional basis in Germany’s top league for a number of years. 

Werner Baumann

Future CFO Werner Baumann was born on October 6, 1962 in Krefeld, Germany. After studying economics at Aachen Technical University and Cologne University, he joined Bayer AG at Leverkusen in 1988. His first duties were in the Southwest Europe section of the Corporate Finance Department. In 1991 he transferred to Bayer Hispania Comercial in Barcelona, Spain to take up a position as controller. He became assistant to the managing director there in 1995.

One year later, Baumann moved to Bayer Corporation in Tarrytown, New York, where he was latterly Head of Business Planning & Administration in the Diagnostics Business Group.

Baumann returned to Germany in July 2002 to become a member of the Board of Management of the newly formed subgroup Bayer HealthCare (BHC). He is presently a member of this company’s Executive Committee and Head of Central Administration & Organization. As a member of the management board of Bayer Schering Pharma until 2009, he actively participated in this company’s integration.

Baumann is married and has four children.