Bayer has appointed Michael Koenig to the board of management effective from 1 April 2013.
Koenig is currently a member of the executive committee of Bayer MaterialScience and head of the Polycarbonates business unit. He will succeed Dr Richard Pott on 1 June next year, upon Pott's retirement.
Pott has worked for Bayer since 1984 and has been a member of the management board since May 2002. Koenig will take over Pott’s duties as labour director and as the board member responsible for human resources, the Latin America, Africa and Middle East regions and the Currenta subsidiary.
As part of the reorganisation within the board of management, chairman Marijn Dekkers will take responsibility for strategy and chief financial officer Werner Baumann will additionally look after the North America region from the middle of next year.
Koenig began his career at Bayer in 1990 as a process engineer for chemicals projects in Europe. After serving in positions of increasing responsibility, he transferred to China in 2000 to become general manager of Bayer Polymers Shanghai. There he led the first negotiations on the construction of the new production site, the Bayer Integrated Site Shanghai, and was made site manager in 2002.
Having first served as global head of production and technology Isocyanates at Bayer MaterialScience, Koenig became senior Bayer representative for the Greater China country group and senior country representative for Bayer MaterialScience in China on 1 April 2007.
He has been head of Bayer MaterialScience’s Polycarbonates business unit, headquartered in Shanghai, since 1 July 2011. In his function as a member of the executive committee of Bayer MaterialScience, he is also responsible for the Asia/Pacific region.