Azelis Group NV announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Anna Bertona as new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), starting on 1st of January 2024. She will succeed Dr. Hans Joachim Müller, who has decided to retire at the end of the year. Anna has also been nominated to join the Azelis Board of Directors.

Anna brings a wealth of industry experience and intimate knowledge of Azelis to the role of group CEO, having worked at Azelis for almost a decade, most recently as CEO & President EMEA since 2016. In her role as CEO & President EMEA, she strengthened relationships with principals, invested in innovation capabilities, and grew the EMEA business from ?749m (2016) to ?1,812m (2022), through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Anna was also instrumental in helping shape the strategy of the group, having started as Head of Strategy in 2013.

In addition, as the Executive Committee sponsor for the group?s sustainability agenda, Anna has consistently demonstrated her commitment to the group?s objective to lead the industry in sustainable value propositions. Dr. Hans Joachim (Jochen) Müller has decided to retire after serving more than ten years as group CEO. In this time, Azelis grew from an EMEA-focused specialty distributor with revenue of ?875m in 2012 to a truly global innovation service provider in the specialty chemicals and food ingredients industry with revenue of ?4,109 million (2022).

Under his leadership, Azelis has made significant strides to become the industry reference for innovative solutions, centered around the lateral value chain. Jochen?s leadership has been critical in delivering this journey, including through the successful initial public offering of Azelis in September 2021.