07.06.23
Brenntag continues to develop its governance and organizational structures, both for the group and the two Brenntag divisions.
As of August 1, 2023, the management board of Brenntag SE will consist of four members: Chief Executive Officer Brenntag Group Christian Kohlpaintner, Chief Financial Officer Brenntag Group Kristin Neumann as well as of two divisional CEOs. Ewout van Jarwaarde, current Chief Transformation Officer, has been appointed by the Supervisory Board of Brenntag SE to lead the Brenntag Essentials division as CEO Brenntag Essentials as of August 1, 2023. He succeeds Steven Terwindt, current chief operating officer, who has decided not to extend his contract with Brenntag ending July 31, 2023.
As of August 1, 2023, the management board of Brenntag SE will consist of four members: Chief Executive Officer Brenntag Group Christian Kohlpaintner, Chief Financial Officer Brenntag Group Kristin Neumann as well as of two divisional CEOs. Ewout van Jarwaarde, current Chief Transformation Officer, has been appointed by the Supervisory Board of Brenntag SE to lead the Brenntag Essentials division as CEO Brenntag Essentials as of August 1, 2023. He succeeds Steven Terwindt, current chief operating officer, who has decided not to extend his contract with Brenntag ending July 31, 2023.
Michael Friede will continue to lead the Specialties division and accordingly will become CEO Brenntag Specialties by the same date.
“Brenntag has reached a point in its transformation where it is all about execution and implementing the strategy along our clearly laid-out roadmap,” said Kohlpaintner. “Brenntag is fully focused on delivering against its four-pillar ‘Strategy to Win’ composed by our Divisional Strategies, Sustainability M&A and our Digital.Data.Excellence program. As our conceptual work is completed, Project Brenntag is successfully executed and as we are moving to clear line responsibilities to execute our strategy, we have decided to discontinue the CTO role established in the beginning of 2021 on board level. Assigning the responsibilities to the various board members allows us to move to a four-member board now.”
New Governance Steering Structure
To evolve the group structure to incrementally more independent, autonomous and market-leading businesses to accelerate the strategy implementation, Brenntag will introduce a new governance and steering structure for its two divisions as of January 1, 2024. In Brenntag Specialties and Brenntag Essentials divisional Executive Committees, led by the divisional Chief Executive Officers Michael Friede and Ewout van Jarwaarde, will be implemented. The operating model evolution includes a partial and gradual shift of specific functions, responsibilities and activities from corporate level to the divisions.
The new governance structure in Brenntag Specialties is centered around global business units externally reported in two new segments, Life Science and Material Science. Brenntag will create a unique Specialties positioning with a more focused portfolio and value-added services offering based on a strong global Life Science segment (including the global business units Nutrition, Pharma and Personal Care & HI&I) and a focused global Material Science business geared towards sustainable chemistry. With this new governance structure, Brenntag Specialties is shifting from a regional to a global steering of its key businesses while continuing to consider local differences and leveraging the local strengths in the Specialties business.
Capital Markets Day 2023
As the new governance structure in Specialties and Essentials also includes some changes in in the divisional portfolio setup, this operational evolution is also a first step in Brenntag’s continual product portfolio management and consequent optimization.
The respective in-depth organizational changes and reporting structures following this new governance and steering model will be detailed in the coming months to prepare for the go-live in January 2024.