Lanxess appoints new Central Eastern Europe CEO

As of 1 January 2013, graduate chemical engineer Wolfgang Heuchel will become the new CEO of Lanxess Central Eastern Europe s.r.o. The 57-year old will succeed Flemming B. Bjørnslev in the Bratislava, Slovakia-based role. Bjørnslev has been appointed president and CEO of Lanxess Corporation in the United States.

Heuchel began his career at Bayer AG in 1981, initially engaged in silicones applications development. During his time working in the sales and marketing organisations of Bayer AG and the Bayer Silicones division, his assignments included postings to Singapore and Tokyo between 1996 and 1999. In 2002, he transferred to the company’s Ion Exchange Resins business unit and with it to specialty chemicals company Lanxess in 2004. Since 1 June, 2008 he has been regional sales head for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region in the Ion Exchange Resins business unit at Shanghai-based Lanxess Chemical Ltd.

“Having spent almost my entire career to date in sales and marketing, I am looking forward now to steering Lanxess along its successful course of growth in central and eastern Europe,” said Heuchel. Rainer van Roessel, member of Lanxess AG’s Board of Management, added: “In the past four years Wolfgang Heuchel has played a decisive part in the success of the Ion Exchange Resins business unit in the APAC region. Under his leadership the ion exchange resins business has grown strongly there. I am certain that in his new function too he will drive forward Lanxess’ growth, this time in the Central Eastern Europe region.”

Lanxess in Central Eastern Europe

The chemical firm has been represented in Austria, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic since 2008 by its own sales company for central and eastern Europe. The company, Lanxess Central Eastern Europe s.r.o., is headquartered in Bratislava and has branches in the Austrian capital Vienna, the Polish capital Warsaw and the Hungarian capital Budapest.

One of the key areas of operation in the five countries is business with high-performance rubbers and rubber chemicals for the global megatrend of mobility. “The company supplies its rubber specialties mainly to national and international tyre manufacturers, more and more of whom are expanding their production capacities in central and eastern Europe and increasingly turning to green tyres to significantly reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,” van Roessel added.