Board of Management

Committed to value creation

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The Board of Management, headed by Patrick Thomas, runs the company with the goal of sustainably increasing Covestro’s enterprise value and achieving defined corporate objectives.
Patrick Thomas

The Board of Management defines the long-term goals and strategies for the company and sets forth the principles and directives for the resulting corporate policies. It coordinates and monitors the most important activities, defines the company's portfolio, develops and deploys managerial staff, allocates resources and decides on the financial steering and reporting of the Covestro Group.

The members of the Board of Management bear joint responsibility for running the business as a whole. However, the individual members manage the areas assigned to them on their own responsibility within the framework of the decisions made by the full Board. The full Board of Management makes decisions on all matters of fundamental importance and in cases where a decision of me full Board is prescribed by law or otherwise mandatory.

The Members of the Covestro Board of Management

  • Patrick Thomas
    Chief Executive Officer

    Year of Birth: 1957
    Nationality: British

    Biography

    Patrick Thomas has been CEO of Covestro and its predecessor Bayer MaterialScience since 2007. Prior to that, the chartered engineer with a degree from Oxford University held various positions including CEO of the Polyurethanes division at Imperial Chemical Industries plc and President of the Polyurethanes, Performance Products and Advanced Materials divisions at Huntsman Corporation.

    Thomas, who was born in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, in 1957, takes leading roles in several industry associations such as Cefic (Conseil Européen de l'Industrie Chimique / European Chemical Council), WPC (World Plastics Council) and VCI (Verband der chemischen Industrie). Furthermore he was president of PlasticsEurope from 2011-2017.

    Patrick Thomas is member of the Supervisory Board of AkzoNobel NV.

    He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2016.

  • Dr. Thomas Toepfer
    Chief Financial Officer

    Year of Birth: 1972
    Nationality: German

    Biography

    Dr. Thomas Toepfer is member of the Board of Management since April 2018. As Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Covestro, he is responsible for Accounting, Controlling and Finance. He also oversees Investor Relations, Information Technology, Portfolio Development, Taxes and Law, Intellectual Property & Compliance.

    Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1972, Toepfer holds a PhD in Business Administration from Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU), Koblenz. He worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, Inc. and in leading management positions for STILL GmbH, Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH amongst others. Before joining Covestro he was a member of the Executive Board, Chief Financial Officer and Labor Director of KION GROUP AG.

  • Dr. Klaus Schäfer
    Chief Technology Officer

    Year of Birth: 1962
    Nationality: German

    Biography

    Dr. Klaus Schäfer is member of the Board of Management since 2015 and the company’s Labor Director since mid-2017. He is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Covestro and responsible for production and technology as well as all chemical production sites.

    Previously, Schäfer was head of Production and Technology in the Polyurethanes segment, was the Country Representative in China for predecessor company Bayer MaterialScience, and Managing Director of German site operator Currenta, which provides services to Covestro at the Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen and Leverkusen sites.

    Born in Bruehl, Germany, in 1962, Schäfer studied physics at the city’s university. After obtaining his PhD, he worked for Erdölchemie and BP before joining the Bayer Group in 2001.

  • Dr. Markus Steilemann
    Chief Commercial Officer

    Year of Birth: 1970
    Nationality: German

    Biography

    Dr. Markus Steilemann is member of the Board of Management since 2015. He is Chief Commercial Officer and responsible for all commercial functions at Covestro, including innovation. These include the three segments Polyurethanes, Polycarbonates and Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties.

    Born in Geilenkirchen, Germany, in 1970, Steilemann graduated with a PhD in chemistry from RWTH Aachen University. He began his career with the Bayer Group in 1999. From 2008, he held various management positions in the Polycarbonates segment at Bayer MaterialScience, the predecessor company of Covestro. Among other things, he was head of Global Industrial Marketing. Between 2013 and 2015, Steilemann headed the entire segment before being appointed to the Covestro Board of Management.

Cooperation in a spirit of trust

In all its actions, the Board takes account of the interests of stockholders, employees and other stakeholders. It performs its tasks according to the law, the Articles of Incorporation and the Board of Management's rules of procedure, and the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code as stated in the declaration of conformity. lt ensures compliance with the law and internal company directives, and works with the company's other governance bodies in a spirit of trust.

According to the Board of Management's rules of procedure and schedule of duties, the Chair bears particular responsibility for coordinating all Board of Management areas. The Chair represents the Board of Management and Covestro AG and the Group in dealings with the public and other third parties.

Find more information on the Board of Management of Covestro, including a detailed listing of the compensation for its members, in the Covestro Annual Report 2017.