Supervisory Board

Belgian, 61

Date appointed to board
10 May 2000 (date appointment Chair: 19 November 2008)

Education
Law – KU Leuven, Belgium

Experience
Thomas Leysen became Chairman of Umicore in November 2008 after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Umicore since 2000. During this mandate, he transformed the former Union Minière from a non-ferrous company into an international materials technology group called Umicore. He joined the group in 1993 as member of the Executive Committee, and successively managed several industrial divisions.

External appointments
Chair, Mediahuis, a European newspaper publishing group - Chair, Royal DSM

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Chairman since
19 November 2008

Chairman of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
19 November 2008

Spanish, 63

Date appointed to board
30 April 2020

Education
Law – University Complutense of Madrid, Spain

Experience
Mario Armero started his professional career at the Armero Law firm and later joined AT&T Spain. From 1992 to 1999 he served as Secretary General at General Electric Plastics Spain, a position which he held until 2001, when he was appointed Chairman and CEO of General Electric Spain and Portugal, being the ultimate responsible for all the Group’s Divisions in Iberia. In March 2008, he joined Corporación Llorente, a diversified family owned industrial group, as CEO. Following that he joined Ezentis as Executive Chairman. From 2012 until 2020, Mario Armero has been the Executive Vice President of ANFAC, the Spanish Car manufacturers association.

External appointments
Advisor of Global Infrastructure Partners - Chairman of ENSO - Independent Board member of Bankinter Consumer Finance - Vice-Chairman of Culmia - Member of the CEDE Foundation (Spanish Confederation of Executives)- Board member of non lucrative association Junior Achievement

Member of the nomination & remuneration committee since
9 December 2020

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2023

Belgian, 59

Date appointed to board
26 April 2016

Education
Master Applied Language Studies Dutch, English, Spanish – Ghent University, Belgium

Experience
Françoise Chombar is co-Founder and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Melexis, a producer of smart sensor and driver semiconductors for automotive, industrial, durable consumer and health applications, where she served as Chief Executive Officer from 2003 until August 2021. She officiated previously as planning manager at Elmos GmbH and operations manager and director at several companies within the Elex group. Françoise was a mentor in the Belgian women’s network Sofia for 17 years and is committed to STEM and gender balance advocacy, for which she received a Flemish Community Honour in 2019. In 2012, she was granted an Honorary Ambassadorship for Applied Languages by the University of Ghent. In 2018, she received the title of Science Fellow by the VUB, University of Brussels and in 2021 the first Medal of Honor, awarded by the Science and Technology Group of KU Leuven.

External appointments
Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Melexis NV, Belgium - Chairwoman, Flemish STEM Platform, an independent advisory group to the government of Flanders - Independent Director, Soitec S.A., France - Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, BioRICS NV, Belgium

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2022

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
26 April 2018

Belgian, 60

Date appointed to board
26 April 2018

Education
Engineering – Ghent University, Belgium; Management – Ghent University, Belgium; Management – MIT Sloan School of Management, USA

Experience
Prof. Dr. Ir. Koenraad Debackere has been with KU Leuven since 1995, where he teaches Technology & Innovation Management and Policy. He has won numerous awards for his research, and in 2010 was awarded a Francqui Lecture Chair in economics and business. From 2005 through September 2020 he was the general manager of KU Leuven and also a member of the Board of KU Leuven.

External appointments
Chairman & independent director, chairman of Nomination Committee, chairman of Remuneration Committee, KBC Group NV, Belgium,Member Board of Governors, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Member of the nomination & remuneration committee since
9 December 2020

Member of the Audit Committee since
26 April 2018

Australian/Swiss, 59

Date appointed to board
28 April 2015

Education
Economics – University of Melbourne, Australia; Applied Information Systems – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

Experience
Mark Garrett has been Chief Executive Officer at Marquard & Bahls AG, a Hamburg-based holding company investing in new energies, gas, chemicals and materials, since August 2018.

Before joining Marquard & Bahls AG, he served as Chief Executive Officer at Borealis AG, Austria, a position he had held since 2007. Prior to that, he built an extensive career in the chemical industry working with companies such as Ciba-Geigy and DuPont.

External appointments
CEO, Chairman of the Executive Board, Marquard & Bahls AG, Germany, Non-executive Chairman, Board of Directors, OMV AG

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
29 July 2017

German, 51

Date appointed to board
26 April 2011

Education
Process and Energy Engineering – Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; Industrial Engineering – École nationale supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne, France; Business Administration – INSEAD Business School, France

Experience
Ines Kolmsee was Chief Executive Officer of Services & Solutions at Aperam from October 2017 through September 2020. She previously served as CEO of SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Group, a specialty chemicals company with operations worldwide, COO and CTO at German utility EWE AG and CFO at Arques Industries AG.

External appointments
Independent non-executive director, Prysmian S.p.A., Italy

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2023

Member of the Audit Committee since
26 April 2011

Chairman of the Audit Committee since
28 April 2015

German, 62

Date appointed to board
29 april 2021

Education
Business Administration - Academy of Administration and Economics (Verwaltungs-und Wirtschaftsakademie – VWA), Germany

Experience
Birgit Behrendt had throughout her career various global leadership positions at Ford Motor Company and was elected a company officer and vice president Global Purchasing in 2013. From 2018 through 2019, she was vice president Joint Ventures, Alliances & Commercial Affairs. She is currently a Senior Advisor and Venture Partner at AP Ventures LLP, London.

External appointments
Member Supervisory Boards: Thyssenkrupp AG, KION Group AG and Ford Werke GmbH, Member of the Board of Directors, Infinium Holdings, Inc., Member of the Administrative Board, Stulz Verwaltungs GmbH, Member of the Advisory Council, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH.

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

French, 65

Date appointed to board
28 April 2015

Education
Economics – Sorbonne, France Mechanical Engineering – École Centrale Paris, France Business Administration – Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA

Experience
Eric Meurice was formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of Netherlands-based ASML Holding, a major provider of advanced technology systems for the semiconductor industry. He was previously EVP in charge of Thomson Multimedia TV Division and held senior positions in several technology groups such as Intel, ITT, and Dell Computer.

EXTERNAL APPOINTMENTS
Non-Executive Director, Global Blue Group S.A., Switzerland, Non-Executive Director, IPG Photonics Corp, USA, Non-Executive Chairman, Board of Directors, Soitec S.A., France

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Belgian, 42

Date appointed to board
25 April 2019

Education
Commercial Engineering – Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, Belgium

Experience
Laurent Raets joined Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) in 2006 and became partner in 2021. He began his career in 2002 as an M&A consultant at Deloitte Corporate Finance, where he was involved in buy and sell mandates, due diligence and valuation assignments.

External appointments
Censor of the Board of Directors of Imerys S.A., France

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2022

Member of the Audit Committee since
25 April 2019

American, 45

Date appointed to board
25 April 2017

Education
Electrical engineering – UC Davis, USA Business Administration – UCLA Anderson, USA

Experience
Liat Ben-Zur has been Corporate Vice President for Modern Life and Devices Product Marketing Management at Microsoft since September 2018.

Prior to joining Microsoft, she was SVP and Digital Technology Leader at Royal Philips where she was responsible for driving the connectivity and digital strategy, since 2014. She served previously in several leadership positions at Qualcomm, a US wireless telecommunications company, and was cofounder and Chairwoman of the AllSeen Alliance, a consortium for an open source, common language for the Internet of Things.

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2023

Ms Ben-Zur reisgned as Supervisory Board member on 29 April 2021

Belgian, 70

Education
Physics – University of Antwerp, Belgium; Business Administration – Antwerp Management School, Belgium

Experience
Marc Van Sande was appointed Executive Vice-President Energy & Surface Technologies in June 2010, after serving as CTO from 2005 to 2010 and as EVP Advanced Materials from 1999 to 2005. Marc joined Umicore in 1980, and held several positions in research, marketing and production. He was also responsible for the Energy & Surface Technologies business group and China.

Marc Van Sande retired on 31 March 2021.

Board secretary,
Belgian, 50
(see Management Board)

Karel Vinck

Honorary Chairman

About the Supervisory board

The Supervisory board’s cumulative industry experience is broad, covering automotive, electronics, chemicals, metals, energy and finance sectors in addition to the fields of academia and science.It also includes people experienced in the public and private sector and members with experience in the different regions in which Umicore is active.Collectively, the Supervisory board possesses strong experience of managing industrial operations and counts 8 active or former CEOs in its ranks.The board also has collective experience in disciplines that are specifically relevant to Umicore’s non-financial Horizon 2020 goals such as health and safety, talent attraction and retention and supply chain sustainability.

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