Kasper Rorsted took over as the new Chairman of the Management Board after Henkel’s  2008 Annual General Meeting yesterday. Having reached the internally agreed age of retirement, his predecessor, Ulrich Lehner, resigned as of the same date. Lehner was appointed Chairman back in May 2000 and, with a brief interruption, has been with Henkel since 1981. He will, however, remain closely associated with the company as a member of its Shareholders’ Committee.

 

Henkel announced that the 46-year-old Rorsted, who is Danish, was to be the successor of Ulrich Lehner as Henkel Chairman back in December 2006. He has been with Henkel since April 2005 and is the company’s first Chairman from outside the German-speaking area. Before joining the Henkel Management Board, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager at Hewlett Packard responsible for Europe, Middle East & Africa.

 

Effective the end of the 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

 

“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 Rorsted. “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.”