Nov. 4, 2009 (Al Bawaba) -- In an effort to further strengthenits geographic presence and connection with key markets and customers, The DowChemical Company (NYSE:DOW) announced today that Geoffery E. Merszei, Executive VicePresident and Chief Financial Officer, will move to a new role as President of DowEurope, Middle East and Africa, while also serving as Chairman of Dow Europe, andExecutive Vice President of The Dow Chemical Company, reporting to Andrew N.Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Merszei has served as the Company'sChief Financial Officer for the past five years. He will relocate to the Company'sEuropean Headquarters in Horgen, Switzerland.
Merszei will also assume additional responsibility as chair of the Company's newlyestablished Geographic Leadership Council.
The Council's function is to ensure Dowbuilds upon its robust global franchise by building strong relationships withpartners and customers and continuing its track-record of making growth investmentsthroughout world. Membership of this Council will be announced shortly.
Managing the Company's global footprint is becoming even more important and this newrole will help ensure Dow is better able to capture growth opportunities inimportant markets around the world. Reporting to Merszei will be Henry Roth,President of Middle East Region, Earl Shipp President of Africa Region, KostasKatsoglou, President of Eastern Europe /Russia Region, and John Dearborn, Presidentof the Ras Tanura Integrated Project in Saudi Arabia as well as the Europeanleadership team.
William H. Weideman, Vice President and Controller, will assume the role of interimCFO while the Company conducts a global search for a replacement for Merszei.
Merszei first joined Dow in 1977, and spent two-thirds of his career in locationsoutside the United States, including multiple assignments in Europe and Asia. Hereturned to the Company in July 2005 as Executive Vice President and CFO afterserving four years as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alcan,Inc.
"Dow has a long and storied history of growing successfully in many parts of theworld with more than two thirds of our business transacted outside of the UnitedStates, but as we focused more on global businesses and functions over the lastdecade, our geographic emphasis changed," said Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and ChiefExecutive Officer. "We are fortunate to have someone of Geoffery's knowledge andexperience available to step up and take on these new responsibilities. In addition,Geoffery has also played a very strong role working with me and the rest of thesenior management team to ensure that we delivered on our commitments in several keyareas, exceeding our financial goals and surpassing key milestones on all fronts."
Weideman has more than 30 years of Finance experience with the Company, and has helda variety of accounting and controller roles for various Dow businesses.
"We are also fortunate to have someone of Bill's caliber to step into the role ofinterim CFO while we conduct the global search for Geoffery's replacement," saidLiveris. "Bill knows and understands the Company extremely well and has theconfidence of everyone in the organization having performed extremely well as VicePresident and Controller working directly alongside Geoffery for the past number ofyears."
These appointments are effective immediately.ｩ 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
