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
Johnson Matthey is expanding its fuel cell operations into China with a £7.5-million facility to manufacture critical components for customers in the region.
Having invested around EUR 25 million in the construction of this 80,000-m3 facility, Borealis can now source and store naphtha for its Porvoo operations from the global market in a more flexible, cost-efficient, and secure way.
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Japan’s largest chemical maker, has named Jean-Marc Gilson, CEO of plant-ingredients maker Roquette Frères (Lestrem, France), as its next CEO, effective 1 April 2021.
