The Management Board

 

	Antonio Trius, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Antonio Trius (born 1955) has been CEO of Cognis since January 2002. When Cognis was founded in August 1999, he was the Management Board member in charge of the Care Chemicals business, with regional responsibility for North America. Trius studied chemistry in Barcelona, and on obtaining his doctorate, he joined Henkel Iberica, where he worked in product development/applications technology for organic chemicals. In 1986, he became technical manager of the Spanish chemicals subsidiary Pulcra, and was promoted to general manager in 1992. In 1997, he was appointed head of the Care Chemicals division at Henkel KgaA, becoming a member of the Management Board in 1998.
	Paul Allen, Executive Vice President Functional Products Paul Allen (born 1951) has been head of Cognis’ Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Functional Products since January 2006, and President of Cognis Corporation in the US since February 2004. After studying foreign languages and business studies at the University of Bath in the UK and the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany, Allen went on to study at the London Institute of Purchasing and Supply. This was followed by positions at several international companies, before becoming European business manager of Diamond Shamrock Process Chemicals in 1985. After this company was acquired by Henkel, Allen took over as head of Henkel Canada in 1988. From 1991, he worked at Henkel Corporation (later Cognis Corporation) in the USA and was employed in a variety of posts. Allen was in charge of the Nutrition & Health SBU from 2002 to October 2005.
	Stephane Baseden, Executive Vice President Nutrition & Health Stephane Baseden (born 1959) has been responsible for the SBU Nutrition & Health since November 2005. Baseden holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Surrey, England, and an MBA from ISSEC, France. Prior to joining Cognis as Managing Director France in 2003 – a position he still holds today – he had over 20 years’ experience of management positions in a variety of functions and locations within the Unilever group, where his last position was head of DiverseyLever Asia-Pacific. In 2004 Baseden took over the responsibility for Nutrition & Health Europe next to his role in France.
	Helmut Heymann, Chief Administration Officer Dr. Helmut Heymann (born 1952) has been CAO of Cognis since January 2002. He is responsible for Human Resources, Corporate Development, Corporate Communication and Legal Affairs. As a member of the Executive Committee since Cognis's founding in 1999, he was responsible for Human Resources. After obtaining his doctorate in economics, Heymann joined Henkel in 1980, where, since 1986, he was responsible for personnel recruitment and administration, subsequently becoming head of the Human Resources management sector. In 1992, he became head of the executive staff management department for the Detergents/Household Cleaners, Cosmetics and Surface Technologies sectors. From 1997, he was General Manager of the Henkel (China) Investment Company in Beijing.
	Marco Panichi, Chief Financial Officer Dr. Marco Panichi (born 1966) has been CFO since October 2009. He studied Business Administration at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen. On obtaining his doctorate, Panichi started his career with Henkel in 1997, and has been with Cognis since the company started trading in 1999. As head of Corporate Development from 2002 to 2005, he made a major contribution to the implementation of Cognis' strategy. From 2006 until the end of 2008, Panichi was based in Malaysia as CFO of the Cognis Oleochemicals global joint venture, with responsibility for all administrative functions. Until recently, he was Group Vice President of Corporate Controlling and Development at Cognis GmbH.
	Richard Ridinger, Executive Vice President Care Chemicals Richard Ridinger (born 1958) has been in charge of the SBU Care Chemicals since 2001. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. Ridinger started as a scientific employee in the sector of process technology at Henkel Research and Technology in February 1986. Two years later, he was production engineer in the fatty alcohol production. In 1992, he was promoted to production manager for the Fatty Chemical Derivatives production and, from 1995 onwards, additionally for the section Organic Products. He took over the management of the newly grounded organization for the production of derivatives in Düsseldorf in 1997. He transferred to the Care Chemicals business in 1999 as the Global Business Director for Skin Care.