WACKER CHEMIE AG 
By Effective March 1, 2012, Dr. Dieter Gilles (54) will head Wacker Chemie AG's Burghausen site. He will succeed Dr. Willi Kleine (62), who is retiring on this date. The Burghausen plant, with about 10,000 employees, is WACKER's largest production site and the biggest chemical site in the German state of Bavaria.
Dr. Dieter Gilles, currently site manager for Siltronic AG at the Burghausen site, has been with WACKER for 21 years. Born in Duisburg in north-west Germany, Gilles, following his studies and subsequent doctorate in physics, received a scholarship from the German Research Foundation to work at the Department of Materials Science in Berkeley, California. He joined Siltronic AG in October 1990, taking on various managerial positions. After transferring to Portland, USA, in 1996, as head of process development, Gilles returned to the Burghausen plant in 1998 as head of the wafers for discrete devices unit. In 2000, he assumed responsibility for developing 300 mm wafer technology. Two years later, Gilles was appointed head of the Large Wafer International business unit. In 2004, he became head of production at Siltronic in the Burghausen plant. Gilles has been Siltronic AG's site manager in Burghausen since 2005.
Dr. Willi Kleine has been Head of the Burghausen site for eight years. A doctor of chemistry, he has been with WACKER since 1978. After holding various managerial positions in production and executive-level functions within the Group, Dr. Kleine, in 1993, became production manager with Vinnolit Kunststoff GmbH, a WACKER subsidiary at that time. In 1999, Dr. Kleine became head of the Coatings/Resins/Dispersions business unit in what is now WACKER POLYMERS, and was appointed a member of the management board of Wacker Polymer Systems GmbH. He subsequently headed the Sealants and Advanced Materials business units in the WACKER SILICONES business division. Kleine has been Burghausen site manager since 2003.
