Kasper Rorsted is the new Chairman of the Henkel Management Board. Henkel announced that the 46-year-old Dane was to be the successor of Ulrich Lehner as Henkel Chairman back in December 2006.
“Ulrich Lehner has been a major force in driving Henkel’s internationality and profit-ability. By realigning our focus to our brands and technologies, he set the direction for the continuous successful development of Henkel,” commented Albrecht Woeste, Chairman of both the Shareholders’ Committee and the Supervisory Board at Henkel, in thanking the departing Chairman for the outstanding contribution he made to the company during his long tenure. Woeste went on: “I am sure that Kasper Rorsted will go on to add further chapters to Henkel’s success story.”
Rorsted, who has been with Henkel since April 2005, will be the company’s first Chairman from outside the German-speaking area. He is also the first Chairman of Henkel’s newly constituted Management Board. Effective the end of today’s Annual General Meeting, the newly founded Henkel Management AG joined Henkel KGaA as its sole personally liable partner. Henkel KGaA will in the future operate under the name of Henkel AG & Co KGaA. The Management Board of Henkel Management AG comprises the same executives who made up the former Management Board of the KGaA – with the exception of Prof Dr Lehner – with Kasper Rorsted as Chairman. Ulrich Lehner will hand over his office to Kasper Rorsted tonight at an evening function with 250 invited guests.
“I am very much looking forward to the tasks ahead of me. Henkel is an internationally successful company with strong, well-known brands,” commented Kasper Ror-sted. “I see it as my duty to continue driving Henkel forward to success. This will mean continuously and consistently augmenting our many and varied strengths. One of the main focal points for 2008 will be the integration of the Adhesives and Electronic Materials businesses acquired from National Starch.”
