Cologne – Frederique van Baarle (48) will take over as head of the High Performance Materials business unit at specialty chemicals company LANXESS with effect from June 1, 2020. The business unit’s portfolio mainly comprises high-performance plastics for the automotive and electronics industries. The Dutch native is currently heading the Global Procurement and Logistics group function. Frederique van Baarle succeeds Michael Zobel (50), who will take over as head of the LANXESS subsidiary Saltigo on June 1, 2020.
“In Frederique van Baarle we have been able to recruit an experienced and successful manager to head our high-performance plastics business. As a long-standing marketing and sales manager at High Performance Materials, she knows the business inside out,” said Hubert Fink, member of LANXESS’ Board of Management.
Frederique van Baarle began her professional career in the chemical industry at the Dutch company Royal DSM in the year 2000 after studying international marketing, obtaining an MBA and graduating at the French business school INSEAD. At DSM, she held a number of internal management roles. Van Baarle joined LANXESS in 2011 and assumed various management positions in sales and marketing in the High Performance Elastomers business unit (now ARLANXEO) and the High Performance Materials business unit. Since December 2018, van Baarle has been heading the company’s global purchasing department.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 6.8 billion in 2019. The company currently has about 14,300 employees in 33 countries. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
