In another move to accelerate earnings momentum and potentially also boost its share price, BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) has announced it will downsize its managing board by one position with effect from the end of 2019. Sanjeev Gandhi, who was appointed to the board in December 2014 and based in Asia, will leave the company – at his own request, as BASF stressed. Since the last reshuffle at the beginning of 2019 – see Plasteurope.com of 17.12.2018 – Gandhi had responsibility for Intermediates and Petrochemicals, Greater China and Functions Asia Pacific, along with South and East Asia, ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand.

In another change reflecting the ongoing corporate reorganisation under CEO Martin Brudermüller, who will enter his third year as head of the world’s largest chemical producer, from the beginning of 2020 BASF said the recently created the cross-functional service units Global Engineering Services, Global Digital Services and Global Business Services, employing 29,000 people, will provide end-to-end services worldwide. After the announcement of the new over-arching structure – see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2019 – the realignment of the managing board seems to be the next consequential step, alongside plans to shed around 6,000 jobs, around half of them in Germany.

From 1 January 2020, the board’s responsibilities will be redistributed among the remaining six members as follows:

In addition to his position as chairman of the board of executive directors (CEO) and chief technology officer, Brudermüller will continue to be in charge of the functions Corporate Legal, Compliance, Tax and Insurance; Corporate Development, Corporate Communications and Government Relations, Corporate Human Resources and Corporate Investor Relations.

Hans-Ulrich Engel will continue to hold the positions of vice chairman of the board of executive directors and CFO in addition to having responsibility for Corporate Finance, Global Procurement, Global Business Services, Global Digital Services and Corporate Audit. Some of his responsibilities for production segments are being transferred to other board members.

Now based in Asia, Markus Kamieth will inherit Sanjeev Gandhi’s regional responsibilities for Greater China; South and East Asia as well as ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand as well as taking the function of overseeing Catalysts and Coatings from Engel. Kamieth will continue to oversee Dispersions and Pigments, Performance Chemicals, Advanced Materials and Systems Research as well as BASF New Business.

Saori Dubourg, at present, the board’s lone female member, will retain responsibility for Agricultural Solutions, Construction Chemicals, Bioscience Research and Region Europe, at the same time taking over Care Chemicals and Nutrition and Health from Kamieth.

As before, Michael Heinz, alongside his role as Industrial Relations Director, will be in charge of Global Engineering Services, Corporate Environmental Protection, Health and Safety, European Site and Verbund Management. He will take region South America from Kamieth.

Based in the US, Wayne Smith will remain responsible for North America as well as Monomers, Performance Materials, Market and Business Development, Site and Verbund Management North America, Process Research and Chemical Engineering. Adding the functions Petrochemicals and Intermediates to Performance Materials (engineering polymers), Smith in future will have board responsibility for the bulk of BASF’s plastics-related activities. .

The function Oil and Gas is no longer a responsibility of the BASF managing board, the activities having been brought into a new majority-owned joint venture with LetterOne.