Dr Wolfgang Heer, chairman of the executive board of Südzucker AG, has resigned from his position as chairman of the executive board in consultation with the supervisory board, today. The supervisory board has thanked Dr Heer for his longtime and successful work leading the company. At this juncture special emphasis has been made to the fact that under the chairmanship of Dr Heer, executive board and supervisory board jointly pursued the diversification of Südzucker Group's corporate activities maintaining a solid and successful market position, despite the current weak sugar markets.

As of 1 March 2020, Dr Niels Pörksen has been appointed as new chairman of the executive board (CEO). In particular he will be responsible for the portfolios strategy, sales, IT and public relations. For more than 20 years Dr Pörksen has been acting in various regions and markets in different leading functions et al. at BASF, Nordzucker and since 2014 at globally operating plant protection company Nufarm. He contributes comprehensive leadership experience especially in market cultivation and strategic corporate development.

Following the successful build-up and extension of the non-sugar activities CFO Thomas Kölbl (57), member of the executive board since 2004 and COO Dr Thomas Kirchberg (59), member of the executive board since 2007, will continue to shape and execute together with Dr Pörksen the profound transformation process already started at the beginning of 2019. The unchanged goal is to consistently develop the sugar business' potential to increase future resilience of the core business sugar against external drivers. The executive board is completed by Johann Marihart (69), chairman of the executive board of AGRANA Beteiligungs-AG. Marihart is member of the executive board since 1993.

Dr Hans-Jörg Gebhard, chairman of the supervisory board, conveys: 'The supervisory board is convinced that Dr Pörksen and the experienced executive board members Dr Kirchberg, Kölbl and Marihart will form a dedicated and experienced leadership team representing continuity in the company as well as in the capital market communication taking on future challenges and leading Südzucker into a successful future.'

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Südzucker AG published this content on 29 January 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 29 January 2020 18:09:04 UTC