DuPont said today that executive chairman Edward Breen would return to the CEO role as it removed CEO Mark Doyle and CFO Jeanmarie Desmond from their positions.
Lori Koch, vice president of investor relations and corporate financial planning and analysis has been named CFO. The changes are effective immediately.
“While we made some progress in 2019, we did not meet our own expectations and we now need to move aggressively to secure our foundation for growth,” said Breen. “We have solid businesses, but, as we discussed on our recent earnings call, we need to accelerate operational improvement and make sure we are taking appropriate action to deliver on our commitments for the year.”
DuPont said on its fourth-quarter earnings call that it would target $215 million of incremental savings from an ongoing restructuring program and was planning actions to deliver an additional $90 million of savings in 2020. The company said that Nick Fanandakis, former DuPont CFO, will serve as senior advisor to the CEO with a focus on driving the restructuring effort.
“After careful consideration, the board concluded now is the right time to make these leadership changes, including restoring Ed to the chief executive role to draw more directly on his substantial operating experience,” said Alexander Cutler, DuPont’s lead independent director. “The board is confident that together Ed and Lori will improve operational performance and ensure DuPont fully delivers on its significant potential for long-term value creation.”
Breen has served as executive chairman of DuPont since its separation from Corteva in June 2019 and previously served as CEO of DowDuPont since 2017. Breen said he “will be transitioning from the Corteva board to focus fully on our work at DuPont.” Prior to the merger of DuPont and Dow, Breen was Chairman and CEO of DuPont since 2015.
By Robert Westervelt
Source: Chemical Week
Neste Corporation’s Board of Directors has appointed Heikki Malinen, M.Sc. (Econ.), MBA (Harvard) as the President and CEO of Neste as of 2 November 2024, at the latest. Malinen joins Neste from Outokumpu Corporation where he has held the position of President and CEO since 2020.
Petrochemicals company Sasol has announced that CFO and executive director Hanré Rossouw will step down from his position, effective October 31. Sasol has started the process to appoint a successor. Rossouw will still oversee the publication of Sasol’s reports for the financial year ending June 30, to allow for a structured handover period.
Chemours announced its CFO Jonathan Lock has resigned from all positions within the company, according to an SEC 8-K filing on April 23. The resignation comes in the aftermath of the company announcing that Lock, former CEO Mark Newman, and principal accounting officer Camela Wisel, had been placed on administrative leave.
