From 1 April, Torsten Derr, currently head of the Lanxess Board of Management’s Commercial & Supply Chain Excellence Initiative, will take over as head of Saltigo, a subsidiary of the speciality chemicals company. The outgoing head, Wolfgang Schmitz, is retiring after 41 years in the company.
Derr started his professional life at Bayer, then in 2007 took charge of the Caprolactam business line of the High Performance Materials business unit at Lanxess. On 1 March 2009, he was appointed head of the Material Protection Products business unit, before assuming responsibility for the Keltan Elastomers business unit from June 2013. In August 2014, the Lanxess Board of Management put him in charge of the Commercial & Supply Chain Excellence Initiative.
Since April 2006, Lanxess’ fine chemicals business has been run by a separate legal entity, Saltigo, which is wholly owned by Lanxess. The business unit is a leading supplier in the field of exclusive custom synthesis. The compounds that Saltigo manufactures form the basis for a variety of agricultural and pharmaceutical active ingredients, polymers and speciality chemicals that also play an important role in daily life.
Saltigo is part of the Advanced Intermediates segment, which achieved total sales in fiscal 2014 of €1.6bn. The company, which is headquartered in Leverkusen and has production facilities in Leverkusen and Dormagen, employs around 1,200 people internationally.
