Harri Kerminen will retire on April 1, 2012 after successfully leading the company through a major strategic change into a water chemistry company and turning the company around to a profitable path. This last assignment completes his 26 years of successful career at Kemira.
Wolfgang Büchele (PhD, Chemistry) has been appointed Kemira Oyj's President and CEO as of April 1, 2012. He has been a member of Kemira's Board of Directors since 2009.
"Kemira's Board of Directors started the CEO succession process this summer due to Harri Kerminen's anticipated retirement in 2013. The process was faster than expected and therefore we agreed with Harri Kerminen that he will retire earlier than planned. As a member of Kemira's pension fund he has the right for this", says Pekka Paasikivi, the Chairman of the Board.
Wolfgang Büchele will bring to Kemira extensive and broad industrial knowledge combined with international experience and network, especially in the fast developing Asian markets. He has spent most of his career, from 1993 until 2007 in BASF's Fine Chemicals organization in Europe, China and United States. Since 2009 he has been member of the Board and CEO of BorsodChem Zrt. in Hungary. He and his family will move to Finland.