Patrick Thomas named Management Board Chairman of Bayer MaterialScience
Leverkusen. Patrick W Thomas (48 - pictured left) has been named the new Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer MaterialScience AG.
British-born Thomas succeeds Dr Hagen Noerenberg (59 - pictured right), who will retire from active service on 31 December 2006 after 30 years with the Bayer Group. Commented Bayer AG Management Board Chairman Werner Wenning, "Given his more than 25 years' international experience in the chemical industry, we are convinced of Patrick Thomas' ability to drive forward our business with high-tech polymer materials."
Patrick Thomas was born on 30 September 1957 in Portsmouth, U.K. He left Oxford University with an engineering degree in 1979. The same year he began his career with British chemicals company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).
Until 1989 he held a number of positions for ICI Pharmaceuticals and Agrochemicals (which became Zeneca in 1993) in the U.K. In 1989 Thomas transferred to Belgium to join ICI Polyurethanes, undertaking various management assignments until in 1993 he was named Regional Director for Europe, Africa & Middle East. Four years later he was appointed global CEO.
In 1999 Thomas joined US chemicals company Huntsman as President of the Polyurethanes, Performance and Advanced Materials Divisions, also based in Belgium. In 2003 he was named Corporate Executive Vice President of Huntsman Matlin Patterson. Since 2005 he has been working as a management consultant for private- equity companies in the industry sector.
“I’m looking forward to working in a company with such a rich tradition as Bayer,” said Thomas “and I’m very optimistic about the future of Bayer MaterialScience.” The future CEO of Bayer MaterialScience, who will join the company on 15 August 2006, is married and has four children.
Dr Noerenberg retires
Dr Hagen Noerenberg has been Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer MaterialScience AG 1 since January 2004. Prior to that he headed up the Bayer Polymers business area. Hagen Noerenberg was born on 31 January 1947 in Holzminden. He studied chemistry at Göttingen and Braunschweig universities, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1975.
The following year he began his career in the Research and Development Division of EC Erdölchemie GmbH, at that time a joint venture between Bayer and BP. He undertook various assignments for the company before being named Managing Director in 1998.
In 2000 Dr Noerenberg became Head of the Plastics Business Group at Bayer and then, from November 2001, Head of the Polyurethanes Business Group. Said Wenning, “Hagen Noerenberg contributed very successfully to the reorganization of our polymers operations, the strategic realignment of Bayer MaterialScience and the considerable improvement in that company’s performance.”