Ralf Blauth has decided to fulfill his long-standing plan to take early retirement from the Executive Board of Evonik Industries and the post of Chief Human Resources Officer as of August 31, 2011. He will be succeeded by Thomas Wessel who has been appointed to the Executive Board as Chief Human Resources Officer effective September 1, 2011.

Ralf Blauth (pictured) trained as an industrial clerical officer at Hüls AG, Marl, Germany, and remained there until 2002, by which time he was Chairman of the General Works Council. He worked as member and Chairman of the Works Councils of E.ON, Degussa, and the RAG group, before joining Evonik Degussa in 2006 as Member of the Board of Management and Human Resources Officer. In July 2009, he was made Member of the Executive Board and Chief Human Resources Officer of Evonik Industries.

Thomas Wessel is currently Member of the Board of Management and Chief Human Resources Officer of Evonik Degussa GmbH. Before this, he was Chairman of the Board of Management of RAG Bildung GmbH.

• Evonik Industries, Essen, Germany