Dr Hans-Joachim Muller, new CEO of Azelis Holding SA.
ANTWERP, BELGIUM: Azelis Board of Directors’ have appointed Dr Hans-Joachim Muller as the new Chief Executive Officer of Azelis Holding SA as Joris Coppye steps down and a capital increase to fund future growth supporting the new CEO’s mandate for expansion.
Hans-Joachim Muller joins Azelis from Clariant where he was an Executive Committee member. Previously, at Sud-Chemie, he was a Member of the Managing board. His professional career started at BASF in Germany and continued in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for the catalyst business in the Asia-Pacific region.
“I aim to build upon our clear focus of value added growth within specialties and plan measures to invigorate our market dedicated commercial teams to maximize synergies and capture available opportunities via new and existing partner relationships,” stated Muller.
Underpinning the new CEO’s mandate and to finance further growth, in August 2012, the company’s existing group of shareholders injected a capital increase of €30 million, with the majority being provided by 3i. The additional funding will allow Azelis to further strengthen its relationships with key principals and financial partners in order to achieve the ambitious growth targets that the group has set itself over the next few years.
“There are additional areas for growth that can be developed further. Among these are our business plans in Asia Pacific as well as projects to selectively acquire new mandates and businesses in Europe and other regions. We have a clear focus to further bolster our position as the leading distributor of specialty chemicals,” said Muller.
Supporting Muller will be Laurent Nataf who takes over responsibility for European Operations in addition to his current role within Azelis as Group Business Development Director. Laurent will focus on achieving effective commercial execution across the group in his new role.
Muller will also appoint a new Chief Financial Officer in due course. The current CFO, Gunther Krausser will move on to become Non-executive Director in Azelis Holding SA, board.
© WOC News