BASF: Personal Changes in the company’s leadership team

The Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE has announced the following changes in the company’s leadership team:

Dr. Alfred Hackenberger, currently President, Competence Center Specialty Chemicals Research, will become President of the South America regional division based in São Paulo, Brazil effective May 1, 2010. The current head of the region Dr. Rolf-Dieter Acker is retiring following a more than 30 year career at BASF.

Dr. Harald Lauke, President of the Performance Polymers division, will succeed Hackenberger. Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, President, Regional Division Market and Business Development Asia Pacific, Hong Kong, will succeed Lauke as of March 1. Dr. Albert Heuser, President of the Petrochemicals division, will succeed Hapke in Hong Kong.

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Prof. Dr. Rainer Diercks, President, Competence Center for Chemicals Research and Engineering, will succeed Heuser as of February 1. The newly appointed division president, Dr. Friedrich Seitz, Group Vice President, Care Chemicals & Formulators Europe in the Fine Chemicals division, will succeed Diercks.

Dr. Alfred Hackenberger (58) has been President of the Competence Center Specialty Chemicals Research since 2004. He studied chemistry at the University of Saarland and received a doctorate from its Institute for Organic Chemistry. He joined BASF in its Dyes Laboratory in 1981. In 1987, he became the assistant to the head of the Brazil regional division in São Paulo. He then was head of sales for dispersions and of the Chemicals division in Brazil. In 1996, he returned to Ludwigshafen and was head of Marketing for Intermediates and then Senior Vice President, Research Fine Chemicals. He moved to Hong Kong in 2001 where he was Group Vice President for the Fine Chemicals Asia Pacific regional business unit until 2004.

Dr. Rolf-Dieter Acker (61) has been head of the South America regional division since 1999. After studying chemistry at the universities of Muenster and Heidelberg and receiving a doctorate, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University in California and was a Scientific Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. Acker started his career at BASF in its Main Laboratory in 1978. He worked as head of scientific job training in the Human Resources division before he became head of the Biotechnology Department in the Main Laboratory and Vice President of Biotechnology at BASF Bioresearch Corporation, United States in 1988. In 1992, he became head of the Public Relations & Market Communications department. He transferred to the South America division in 1998.

Dr. Harald Lauke (50) has been President of the Performance Polymers division since 2006. He studied chemistry and graduated from the Technical University in Berlin. He received his PhD from the same University in 1985 after completing a scholarship program in Illinois, USA. Lauke joined BASF in 1986 as a research chemist in the Plastics Laboratory. He has then held various positions within Engineering Plastics before becoming Managing Director of Comparex Sistemas Informáticos S.A., Spain in 1996. Two years later he was transferred to Singapore as Director Regional Marketing, Engineering Plastics. In 2001, he became Group Vice President, Performance Polymers Asia Pacific. He was then President of BASF South East Asia. From 2002 until 2004, he was President, Functions and Market Efficiency Asia Pacific, also based in Singapore.

Dr. Wolfgang Hapke (54) has been President, Market & Business Development, Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong since 2004. He studied in economic education, physical education and business at the University of Goettingen, where he received a doctorate in business administration. He joined BASF in 1989 as the assistant to the head of the Raw Material Purchasing division. He then held different positions in the area of chemicals purchasing and in the inorganic chemicals and metals unit. He was delegated to the United States at the beginning of 1996 and worked in various functions in the fibers business before he became head of the Fiber Products division in 1999. He returned to Germany in 2001 and was head of the Global Competence Center Purchasing until 2004.

Dr. Albert Heuser (54) has been President of the Petrochemicals divisions since 2006. He studied metallurgy and materials science at the Technical University in Aachen and earned a Ph.D. in materials science. He joined BASF in the materials science department of the engineering development division in 1987. After various jobs in the area of engineering, he became head of the Styrenics production department at BASF Antwerp in Belgium in 1997. In 2000, he became Chairman of the board of management of BASF Schwarzheide. From 2002 until 2006 he was President Ludwigshafen Verbund Site Management.

Dr. Rainer Diercks (53) has been President, Competence Center Chemicals Research & Engineering since 2004. He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Hamburg. He joined BASF in 1986 and was a laboratory head in the Ammonia Lab. Further stations as head of technologies development and plant manager in the Industrial Chemicals Division, as well an assistant to a board member followed. In 1994, he was appointed Director of Economic Efficiency Evaluation, and then in 1996 Vice President of the Strategic Planning department. From 2001 until 2003 he was President of the Inorganics division.

Dr. Friedrich Seitz (54) has been Group Vice President, Care Chemicals & Formulators Europe in the Fine Chemicals division since 2007. Following his studies in chemistry in Munich and Oxford, his doctorate from the Technical University in Munich and post-doc studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Seitz joined BASF’s Plastics Laboratory in 1986. In 1992, he became the assistant to a board member and then worked in marketing and applied technology for reaction resins. In 1997, he became the managing director of the joint venture DSM-BASF Structural Resins based in Zwolle, The Netherlands. From 1999 until 2003, he was Managing Director, Greater China headquartered in Hong Kong. In 2004, he returned to Ludwigshafen and was Group Vice President of Plasticizers and Solvent Europe regional business unit until 2007.

More Information: www.basf.com

BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany

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