Lots of chairs moving around in Europe in November, with some of the big companies filling positions across their businesses. In Germany, Thomas Kloster is now president of the petrochemicals division at the behemoth BASF. He’ll take charge of the petrochemicals division in Ludwigshafen at the start of 2025. In his place will go Lena Adam, senior vice president of fuel and lubricant solutions.
Thomas replaces Hartwig Michels, who has hung up his lab coat and retired. Not a moment too soon; BASF has been closing facilities and cutting jobs since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. BASF was, like the rest of the country, over-reliant on Russian gas. It also made a large investment in a verbund site in China, which, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, is now virtually self-sufficient in many chemicals.
Also in Germany, BP’s lubricant brand Castrol made Mathieu Boulandet its new global marine and energy business CEO. Mathieu, based in Dusseldorf, was previously vice president for industrial lubricants in Europe. Castrol poached Mathieu from TotalEnergies six years ago.
Rhone Energies, the new owner of ExxonMobil’s former Fos-sur-Mer refinery in the south of France, bumped up Herve Fonlupt to be general manager of the refinery. Herve was operations manager at the site when it was under the Esso ownership and will now head day-to-day operations.
Rerefinery Blue Tide Environmental appointed Terence McHugh CEO. Terence was VP and global head of product line hydroprocessing catalysts and adsorbents at Evonik Corp.
A quick drive south along Highway 146 takes you to the site of what will the be the ReGen III rerefinery in Advario. ReGen III appointed Tony Weatherill CEO and president effective Monday. Tony put three decades into the lubricant business at H.F. Sinclair Corp. and Petro-Canada Lubricants.
Joseph Berquist is Quaker Houghton’s new CEO and president. Joseph took over from Andy Tometich.