New Managing Director of Wacker Chemicals Greater China      

On October 6th, Wacker Chemical announced Mr. Jean-Lionel Gros stepped down as managing director of WACKER Chemicals Greater China to assume a new role as the WACKER Group's senior vice president of Sales and Distribution. Dr. Peter von Zumbusch, former vice president of Operations in Greater China, was appointed his successor as managing director of WACKER Chemicals Greater China.
   For more than five years now, Jean-Lionel Gros has been active in Shanghai as president of WACKER Greater China. Under his leadership, WACKER has built a strong presence in Greater China with its procurement, production, sales and technical support activities. In the past few years, both employee numbers and sales revenue achieved high two-digit growth rates in the region.
   So far, in Greater China, WACKER has two technical centers (in Shanghai and Beijing), three production sites (in Wuxi, Zhangjiagang and Nanjing) and seven sales offices (in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shunde, Hong Kong, Taipei and Hsinchu). In 2007, WACKER Greater China generated sales of over Euro 600 million with around 500 employees. WACKER was also named one of China's "Top Employ-ers 2008 Shanghai Region" by the Corporate Research Foundation (CRF).
   Dr. Peter von Zumbusch joined WACKER in 1996 after obtaining a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and biotechnology at the Technical University of Hamburg. After several years' successful involvement in investment projects and strategic procurement, he was appointed head of Procurement Equipment and Services at the WACKER Group in 2003. In this position, he played an important role in early negotiations in connection with WACKER's Zhangjiagang project.
   To better oversee the project during its initial planning and strategy formulation stages, Dr. Peter von Zumbusch relocated to China at the end of 2005 and became Zhangjiagang site manager. In 2007, he took on responsibility for all WACKER's Chinese production sites and became vice president of Operations at WACKER Chemicals Greater China.
   With his skill at generating good returns on investment, strategic planning and implementation, and a clear vision of WACKER's mission in China, Dr. von Zumbusch is expected to continue the course mapped out by his predecessor, guiding his Greater China team in their tasks of completing infrastructure and building local competency - essential for WACKER's long term development in the region.