Saori Dubourg will not be the first female CEO of the chemical company BASF. The 51-year-old German-Japanese will probably leave the company on February 28th. “On the best of terms,” as the group reports.
However, the extremely dry one-line thanks for their work in Wednesday’s press release speaks a different language. Dubourg was considered internally to be the biggest critic of CEO Martin Brudermüller’s commitment to China. The group is planning a completely new Verbund site in the southern Chinese industrial metropolis of Zhanjiang, which will cost up to 10 billion euros. Dubourg considers the largest single investment to date to be too risky in view of the growing tensions with China and, unusually for BASF, has also let the criticism shine through publicly.
BASF must initiate austerity measures
Her resignation comes just a day before the company management in Ludwigshafen wants to announce details of the savings program that has already been announced. Thousands of jobs are likely to be lost and parts of production relocated. The high price of gas caused by the war and the uncertainty about the amount and availability of “green energies” are putting considerable pressure on the chemical industry.
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China, on the other hand, which is already the world’s largest production site for chemicals, is likely to become even more important. So far, CEO Brudermüller has always countered the geopolitical risks and concerns about the “risk concentration” of such an investment by referring to the outstanding importance of China in the chemical industry. With a view to the continuing high importance of the European market for BASF, Brudermüller said that the actual concentration of risk for the group is more in Europe. In addition, both the German and the Chinese government have an interest in the successful implementation of the project. In fact, the planned plant network has a political dimension in addition to its financial dimension. In Zhanjiang, BASF is the first petrochemical group in China to build and operate a plant on its own – in other words without a local partner. The building was therefore, at least until now, a symbol of the further opening of China.
Saori Dubourg took a lot of freedom in addition to her actual tasks in a group that traditionally attaches great importance to esprit de corps. Among other things, she campaigned publicly in debates and guest comments for a change in accounting in order to show the importance of industrial companies compared to technology companies. One would have expected their “value balance alliance” with SAP, Bosch or Deutsche Bank to be in the hands of a CEO.
With the Group since 1996 and on the Executive Board since 2017, the business administration graduate has also successfully managed large regions such as Asia and important segments such as the agricultural business. She has already moved more than 25 times for the group, she once told the FAZ. The group does not report where she goes. Nor whether she will be paid out for her contract, which runs until 2025.
With Dubourg’s departure, Melanie Maas-Brunner’s chances of becoming CEO could increase. The doctor of chemistry is considered to be one of the most promising candidates. So far, she has been valued equally by the employees and CEO Martin Brudermüller. As site manager for the main plant in Ludwigshafen and not least as labor director, she will become the face of job cuts in the coming weeks and months.
Brudermüller’s contract was extended by one year by the chairman of the supervisory board, Kurt Bock, at the end of 2022 and will now end at the 2024 Annual General Meeting times is not without experienced leaders. At the same time, long-serving board member Hans-Ulrich Engel is retiring. Other voices report that Brüdermüller, who is only 61 years old, would have liked to have made it longer.
Stephan Kothrade, a man who knows China and has worked for many years at BASF, will take over from Dubourg. The 55-year-old doctor of chemistry has worked in various positions in Asia for almost ten years, most recently as responsible for the “Greater China” region based in Shanghai. His appointment should be a sign that BASF is not making any compromises on its major project in China even after leaving Dubourg.