Leading R&D Executives To Retire

Senior chemical industry research leaders Thomas M. Connelly Jr. of DuPont and Andreas Kreimeyer of BASF, plan to retire over the next few months, making way for younger executives.

Thomas M. Connelly Jr., 62, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at DuPont, will retire effective Dec. 31. Douglas W. Muzyka, 60, senior vice president and chief science and technology officer, will succeed Connelly as a member of the office of the chief executive, reporting to CEO Ellen J. Kullman.

Connelly has been with DuPont for 37 years, joining the company as a research engineer at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Del. He has held a number of technical leadership and operating positions within the company and became executive vice president in 2006.

Andreas Kreimeyer, 59, executive research director at BASF for the past six years and a member of the company’s board of executive directors, will retire on April 30, 2015. Fellow board member Martin Brudermüller, 53, will take on the research role following Kreimeyer’s retirement.

Kreimeyer joined BASF to work in the firm’s labs 28 years ago. He has held a number of operating positions, including leadership of the firm’s dispersants and functional polymers divisions.