Borealis has announced the appointment of Erik van Praet as vice president innovation & technology effective 1 April 2020. Van Praet succeeds Maurits van Tol, who last year moved to Johnson Matthey as chief technology officer and joined the management committee.
Van Praet started his career with Borealis in 1995 as development engineer at Zwijndrecht, Belgium, followed by various research manager positions at Porvoo, Finland; Stenungsund, Sweden; and the positions of intellectual property rights manager and technology commercialization manager at Mechelen, Belgium. Prior to joining Borealis, he worked at Desotec, a company specialised in air and water purification.
Most recently, Van Praet held the position of director strategy and portfolio for over a decade, first at Linz, Austria and then at Beringen, Belgium. “For many years, Erik van Praet has been a mastermind and key pillar of our ‘Value Creation through Innovation’ strategy, which remains a key differentiator of the Borealis polyolefin strategy,” said Lucrèce Foufopoulos, executive vice president/polyolefins, innovation and circular economy.
By: Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
3M and Dow have announced they are cutting thousands of roles from their global workforces in response to economic pressures. Dow has said it will cut 2,000 jobs across its global workforce (around 5%) in a bid to save US$1bn in 2023. The company says it will also cut costs by shutting down “select assets”, though it did not note where it would halt operations.
Sweden’s state mining firm has discovered what could be Europe’s largest rare earths deposit, and says it could help the bloc reduce its reliance on imports of minerals needed to manufacture clean technologies and meet climate targets.
Henkel and Avantium have been partners since 2019, when Henkel joined the PEFerence consortium. This consortium of partners, coordinated by Avantium, aims to establish an innovative supply chain for FDCA and PEF (polyethylene furanoate).
