Bayer changes top management, Sandra E. Peterson new chairman of Bayer CropScience AG
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Ms. Peterson has been a member of the Executive Committee of Bayer HealthCare since May 2005, heading up the Medical Care Division since January 2009.
Prior to that she was in charge of the Diabetes Care Division, now one of the businesses of Medical Care.
Ms. Peterson holds a B.A. in Government from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and a Master of Public Administration in Applied Economics from the University of Princeton, New Jersey.
She received a fellowship from the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart, Germany, and spent a year in 1984-85 serving with the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federation of German Industries.
From 1987-1993, Ms. Peterson was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, working on brand marketing strategies, innovative product development and new business.
Between 1993 and 1996 she held various global executive positions with home appliances manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation, subsequently being appointed Executive Vice President at foods company Nabisco.
In 1999 Ms. Peterson became Senior Vice President of Merck-Medco's Health Businesses, where she launched several new business lines.
Her areas of responsibility at Medco included business development, strategy, cooperation management, product development, branding and marketing.
As an Executive Management team member, Ms. Peterson played a role in the strategic spin-off of Medco Health from Merck & Co. latterly serving as Group President of Medco Health Solutions, Inc.
Ms. Peterson is a member of the Board of Directors of Dunn & Bradstreet.
Dr. Berschauer has been Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG since April 1, 2004.
He studied agricultural science at the Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, subsequently working as a scientific assistant at the university’s Institute for Animal Nutrition.
Having gained a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science in 1977, Dr. Berschauer joined Bayer AG in 1980 as Head of the Animal Nutrition Department at the Pharmaceuticals Research Center in Wuppertal.
Dr. Berschauer held various positions with Bayer before being appointed Head of Development in the company’s Crop Protection Business Group in 1993.
In 1998 he transferred to the United States to become President of the Animal Health Division of Bayer Corporation.
In July 2000 he was appointed General Manager of the Animal Health Business Group of Bayer AG.
After the reorganization, Dr. Berschauer was initially appointed a member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee with responsibility for the Animal Health Division and the Asia-Pacific region.
From October 1, 2003 he was a member of the Board of Management of Bayer HealthCare AG and the company’s labor director, before taking up his current position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG.
Since July 2008 Dr. Berschauer has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of CropLife International.
Ms. Peterson’s successor as a member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee and Head of the Medical Care Division will be Alan Main, currently Head of the Europe Region in Bayer HealthCare’s Consumer Care Division.
Mr. Main has been Head of the Region Europe in Bayer HealthCare’s Consumer Care Division, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, since February 1, 2008.
This Region comprises the western and eastern European countries, the Middle East and Africa.
Before that, Mr. Main was Head of the Region Asia/Pacific in the Consumer Care Division, where he was responsible for Commercial Operations and the development of important growth markets in the Far East.
He is currently a board member and Vice President of the AESGP (European Self-Care Industry Association.)
Mr. Main obtained a B.A. in International Marketing from Thames Polytechnic.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Main has more than 25 years of experience in the OTC industry, in which he has held various positions in marketing and management.
Before entering the consumer care business he worked for Stafford-Miller (now GSK) and Merrel-Dow (now Sanofi-Aventis).
In 1992 Mr. Main began his marketing career with Roche Consumer Health in the United Kingdom, where he held various positions of increasing responsibility in the U.K. and abroad, including South Africa and Hong Kong.
He joined Bayer in January 2005 following the successful acquisition of the Roche Consumer Health business.
Before the acquisition, Mr. Main was Head of the Region International, comprising Asia/Pacific, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.
He was a member of the Leadership Team at Roche Consumer Health.
In addition, the company appointed Achim Noack to the company’s Board of Management effective June 1, 2010. As of October 1, 2010, Noack will assume responsibility for Industrial Operations & QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety and Environment) in succession to Dr. Wolfgang Welter who will retire on September 30.
After studying chemical engineering at the University of Dortmund, Mr. Noack joined Bayer AG in 1986 as a process engineer with the former Crop Protection Business Group.
After five years he transferred to Engineering in the Central Technology Division, moving after two years to Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A., to serve as Project Manager for the Crop Protection Business Group.
Mr. Noack returned to Germany in 1997 as Plant Manager for the Organic Chemicals Business Group in Krefeld-Uerdingen.
Two years later he was placed in charge of engineering support for agrochemical active ingredients in Germany.
In 2000 Mr. Noack was named Head of the Corporate Engineering Department and, shortly thereafter, Chief Technology Officer of Bayer Corporation, U.S.A., in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After the establishment of Bayer Technology Services (BTS) in 2002, he headed the Bayer Technology Services Americas office.
Mr. Noack was appointed the company’s Managing Director in mid-2005. In this function Noack pursued a systematic growth strategy, continuing the development of the former Central Technology Division into a flexible, customer-focused service provider.
Dr. Welter studied chemistry in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern.
In 1977 he joined Hoechst AG, where in the period through 1994 he held a number of positions and undertook various international production assignments for the Crop Protection and Fine Chemicals business groups, including the position of site manager in Griesheim.
From 1994 to 1999 Dr. Welter was in charge of global active ingredients production at AgrEvo in Frankfurt.
Thereafter he was appointed Head of Manufacturing at Aventis CropScience in Lyon, France, and was a member of the Executive Committee.
In June 2002 Dr. Welter became Head of Industrial Operations at Bayer CropScience in Monheim, Germany.
He was appointed to the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience AG effective July 1, 2004.
His work centered on successful site consolidation and the optimization of production costs.
Effective June 1, 2010, Mr. Noack will be succeeded as Managing Director of Bayer Technology Services GmbH by Dirk Van Meirvenne, currently Head of Production and Technology Isocyanates at Bayer MaterialScience AG.
Dr. Van Meirvenne studied polymer chemistry at the University of Ghent, Belgium.
In 1990 he joined Bayer Antwerpen N.V., Belgium, where he worked in titanium dioxide production until 1997, latterly as plant manager.
He subsequently transferred to the plastics unit where he was responsible for polycarbonate production in Antwerp until 2001.
Dr. Van Meirvenne subsequently served as site manager in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, which at that time was being expanded to become Bayer’s largest production center for polycarbonates in Asia.
Just over a year later Dr. Van Meirvenne was appointed Head of Global Operations, Polycarbonates at Bayer Polymers in Krefeld-Uerdingen.
When Bayer MaterialScience was formed in 2004, he was appointed Global Head of Production and Technology in the Polycarbonates business unit.
Since 2007 Dr. Van Meirvenne has served as Global Head of Production and Technology, Isocyanates, at Bayer MaterialScience in Leverkusen. ■