“I’m both humbled and grateful for the opportunity to lead and work alongside the talented U.S. team, as we continue to advance the company’s vision of becoming fully circular,” said Hifri. “In some ways, I feel as though as my own career has come full circle, as this next chapter brings me back to Pittsburgh, where my Covestro journey first began.”

Click here to read Hifri’s biography: https://bit.ly/Samir-Hifri-Biography

Hifri joined the company in 1998 as a commercial trainee at Covestro’s U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa. Since then, he has led a diverse career spanning product management, sales & marketing, supply chain and country management – a path that has taken him to 10 Covestro sites across six countries and three continents. Hifri currently serves a dual role as the senior vice president and managing director of Covestro Hong Kong, as well as head of the Supply Chain & Logistics Center for the Asia Pacific region.

Hifri graduated from Duquesne University with a bachelor’s degree in international finance, and he also holds an executive degree from INSEAD in France. Hifri is married with four children, and, in addition to his professional responsibilities, remains active in a number of community and academic functions.

“With his passion for people, deep knowledge of Covestro’s global business and strong ties to America, Samir is well suited to lead the U.S. organization into the future,” said Thomas Toepfer, CFO at Covestro and member of the Board of Management.

“On behalf of the Board of Management, I want to exend my congratulations to Samir and also to recognize Haakan for his many contributions to Covestro. Haakan steered the U.S. organization through one of the most challenging and transformative periods in our history, while continuing to foster a more diverse, inclusive and innovative culture.”

Since joining the company as a scientist in 1992, Jonsson has led a distinguished career paved with more than 20 patents and leadership roles spanning innovation, supply chain and production operations. He assumed his current role in January 2020, quickly having to shift gears from the normal course of business to safely sustaining U.S. operations in the face of a global pandemic. This was one of many achievements marking Jonsson’s tenure – an era that also oversaw the U.S. integration of the resins and functional materials business (acquired from DSM) and the launch of the Covestro Circular Economy Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Through it all, Jonsson remained an actively engaged board member serving numerous organizations across the Pittsburgh community and broader U.S. chemical industry.

“I’ve been fortunate to have led a long, fulfilling career with Covestro, which culminated in the ultimate privilege of leading the first-class team here in the U.S.,” said Jonsson. “As my own Covestro journey comes to a close, I am confident that the U.S. organization will continue to grow and thrive under Samir’s capable leadership.”

Covestro’s U.S. presence includes roughly 2,700 employees and 13 site locations across the states of Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia. The U.S. business represents approximately 25 percent of global Covestro sales.

The new committee has a lot of plans for the next term of office. In particular, it wants to breathe even more life into the three guiding principles of the society with a focus on digitization, diversity and internationalization, and thus also continue the course it has taken in recent years to drive forward the modernization of the GDCh. "We can be truly proud of what the GDCh has achieved and what it represents, but we also want to support the changes in society and science and thus play an active role in shaping the future of the GDCh," Danielmeier emphasizes.

Karsten Danielmeier, born in Werl in 1967, studied at the University of Bonn where he received his doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry under Professor Dr. Eberhard Steckhan in 1995. The following year, he joined Bayer AG where he was active in numerous positions of increasing responsibility in raw materials research for coatings and adhesives in Germany and the United States. Most recently, he headed research for the Functional Films division in Leverkusen and was Senior Vice President for Research and Development in the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro from 2015 to 2021.

Danielmeier has been a member of the GDCh board since July 2020 and had previously served for several years on the scientific planning committee of the Coatings Chemistry division.

Sustainability as a catalyst for ideas

“The winning idea has the potential to respond to the major challenges of our time, such as climate change and global population growth, and to contribute to sustainable mobility,” said Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro and responsible for innovation. “Our goal is to use our solutions to expand the circular economy in the plastics industry and make the world a better place to live. The ideas and teams that took part in the Start-up Challenge help us to achieve this goal faster by designing concepts for more sustainable product lifecycles.”

The six best start-up teams have been intensively preparing for the grand finale over the past few months. The winners ultimately prevailed against five other projects from different business areas. In total, more than 200 applications for the second round of the internal competition were received worldwide this year.

Employees become start-up founders

For this year's winners, it's now time to get down to the business of being a founder. They will be released from their jobs for up to a year in order to realize their business idea and test the marketability of the products. Covestro will provide them with start-up financing of up to one million euros. This gives the team the chance to act as a start-up within the company and to prove their skills as founders under real conditions. With the Start-up Challenge, Covestro aims to promote the creativity and entrepreneurial thinking of its nearly 17,000 employees.

Focus on circular economy

The six teams in this year’s final and their ideas focus on further developing and strengthening the circular economy. “The ideas of the six finalists all have great potential to drive expansion of the circular economy,” says Dr. Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. “Our contest helps encourage everyone in the company to get good ideas ready for the market as quickly as possible and turn them into genuine innovations.”

One of the business ideas involves generating power from plastic waste – so as to counter plastic pollution in the oceans and also granting access to electricity for more people in underdeveloped markets.

A sustainable means of providing clean drinking water and safe sanitary facilities is also being researched. Water pollution is to be curbed with an innovative polyurethane technology. Other ideas deal with the subject of resource efficiency, for example – such as in the shape of recyclable shipment packaging and a more sustainable, CO₂-based cleaning agent that can be degraded more easily.

Own venture for the start-up idea from the first challenge

The winners of the first Start-up Challenge now have the structures and resources they need to put their idea into practice: Their “go clear” project will become a separate venture at the research division of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment. The objective is to further develop a new technology for clean, safe and efficient refinishing of cars that speeds up the related processes and so saves paint shops time and money.

Marc Schreiber, one of the founders of “go clear,” is the venture’s head. “It’s a huge opportunity to work independently,” says Schreiber. “With go clear, I can accompany a project from the first idea to the finished product and hopefully to the first revenue it generates. I think that’s great.” go clear is still in the technical development stage at the moment. Various materials and production processes are being tested to achieve ideal objectives. The technology is to be tested by pilot customers at the end of this year.

About Covestro:

With 2018 sales of EUR 14.6 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health, and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 16,800 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2018.

Find more information at www.covestro.com.
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/covestro

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on current assumptions and forecasts issued by the management of Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

In order to realize the business idea, the winners are now released from their jobs for one year and can work within the group like company founders. To do so, they will receive up to one million euros in support. With the program, Covestro aims to promote creativity and entrepreneurial thinking among its nearly 16,000 employees.

The team consisting of members from different business divisions prevailed in the final against five other teams who have been preparing themselves intensively for the competition over the past four months. At the start of the Start-Up Challenge, around 600 projects were submitted worldwide. Ideas for more sustainability and new digital business models were predominantly focused on.

Employees think like entrepreneurs

“We were overwhelmed by the great innovative power of the ideas and the distinctive entrepreneurial thinking of the applicants,” says Dr. Markus Steilemann, who is responsible for innovation, marketing and sales on the Covestro board.

“With the Start-Up Challenge we reinforce our claim that innovation goes beyond traditional research and development. Because every single employee in every department can develop something new.” At the same time, the competition and the reinforcement of entrepreneurial thinking and actions in the Group help to test innovative ideas much more quickly on the market. Steilemann emphasized: “This also benefits our customers.”

The Start-Up Challenge goes beyond other company-internal innovation competitions because it gives employees the opportunity to develop innovative ideas into viable business models and demonstrate their own skills as founders. Steilemann announced that “we will continue to pursue many of the projects now”. “Because the innovative ideas help us to push the boundaries of what is possible together, in order to pursue our vision of making the world a brighter place to live.”

About Covestro:

With 2017 sales of EUR 14.1 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,200 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2017.

Find more information at www.covestro.com.
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CovestroGroup.

Forward-looking statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.