Supervisory Board

Belgian, 62

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

Education
Law – KU Leuven, Belgium

Experience
Thomas Leysen became Chair of Umicore in November 2008 after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Umicore 2000-08. 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, Belgium - Chair, Royal DSM, The Netherlands

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Chairman since
19 November 2008

Chairman of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
19 November 2008

Chair of the Investment Committee
February 2023

Spanish, 64

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 1992-99 he served as Secretary General at General Electric Plastics Spain, a position that he held until 2001. He was appointed Chair and CEO of General Electric Spain and Portugal in 2001, with responsibility 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 Chair. From 2012 till 2020, Mr Armero was the Executive Vice President of ANFAC, the Spanish car manufacturers association.

External appointments
Advisor of Global Infrastructure Partners - Chair of ENSO - Independent Board member of Bankinter Consumer Finance - Vice Chair 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

Member of the Sustainability Committee
February 2023

Belgian, 60

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 Chair of the Board of Directors of Melexis, where she served as CEO 2003-21. She was previously planning manager at Elmos GmbH and operations manager and director at several companies within the Elex group. Françoise was a mentor in the Belgian Network for Gender studies, Sofia, for 17 years. She 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 at VUB, Brussels and in 2021 the first Medal of Honor, awarded by the Science and Technology Group of KU Leuven.

External appointments
Chair of the Board of Directors, Melexis NV, Belgium - Chair, Flemish STEM Platform, Belgium - Independent Director, Soitec SA, France - Independent Board member of Mediafin, Belgium - Independent Board member of Antwerp Management School, Belgium - Non-executive Board member of Ligentec SA, Switzerland

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
26 April 2018

Member of the Sustainability Committee
February 2023

Belgian, 61

Date appointed to board
26 April 2018

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

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 2005-20 he was the general manager of KU Leuven as well as a Board member. Since 2022, he has been Chair of the Board of KU Leuven Association.

External appointments
Chair & Independent Director, Chair of Nomination Committee, Chair 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, 60

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 stepped down from all operational responsibilities in July 2022. He was CEO at Marquard & Bahls AG, a Hamburg-based holding company investing in new energies, gas, chemicals and materials, 2018-22. Before joining Marquard & Bahls AG, he served as CEO 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
Former CEO, Chair of the Executive Board, Marquard & Bahls AG, Germany - Non-executive Chair, Board of Directors, OMV AG, Austria

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
29 July 2017

German, 52

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 is currently a partner at Matterwave Ventures, an early-stage deep-tech Venture Fund. Prior to this, she was CEO of Services & Solutions at Aperam SA from 2017-20. 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 SpA, Italy - Independent Non-Executive Director, Boralex Inc, Canada - Independent Non-Executive Director, Etex SA, Belgium

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2023

Member of the Audit Committee since
26 April 2011

Chair of the Audit Committee since
28 April 2015

Member of the Investment Committee
February 2023

German, 63

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- 19 Mrs. Behrendt assumed the position of Vice President Joint Ventures, Alliances & Commercial Affairs. She is currently a Senior Advisor and Venture Partner at AP Ventures LLP, London, a leading independent venture capital fund across the hydrogen value chain.

External appointments
Member of the Supervisory Boards of Thyssenkrupp AG, KION Group AG Ford Werke GmbH, Germany - Member of the Board of Directors,  Infinium Holdings, Inc US - Member of the Administrative Board, Stulz Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG Germany - Member of the Advisory Council, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH, Germany until 30 September 2022

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Chair of the Sustainability Committee
February 2023

Member of the Investment Committee
February 2023

French, 66

Date appointed to board
28 April 2015

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

Experience
Eric Meurice was formerly President and CEO 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 SA, Switzerland - Non-Executive Director, IPG Photonics Corp, US - Non-Executive Chair, Board of Directors, Soitec SA, France

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2024

Belgian, 43

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 a partner in 2021. He began his career in 2002 as an M&A Consultant at Deloitte Corporate Finance, where he was involved in buying and selling mandates, due diligence and valuation assignments.

External appointments
Member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Imerys SA, France

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Audit Committee since
25 April 2019

Member of the Investment Committee
February 2023

UK, 58

Date appointed to board
28 April 2022 (effective 1 September 2022)

Education
Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK - Ph.D, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK

Experience
Alison Henwood is a highly experienced finance professional with nearly 30 years at Shell, where she has held various financial leadership positions in Europe and the US, including the position of Executive Vice President Finance, Shell Trading and Supply. She finished her executive career at Shell end of June 2022. Since 2017, she has chaired the Audit Committee of the UK Hydrographic Office, a Ministry of Defence agency that provides hydrographic and marine geospatial data to mariners and maritime organizations across the world. In September 2021, she also joined the Board of Spectris plc, a global supplier of precision instrumentation, test equipment and software and a constituent of the FTSE 250.

External appointments
Chair of Audit Committee, Hydrographic Office, UK - Board Member and Audit Committee Member, Spectris plc

Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Audit Committee since
1 September 2022

Member of the Sustainability Committee
February 2023

Board secretary,
Belgian, 51
(see Management Board)

Karel Vinck

Honorary Chair

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 eight active or former CEOs in its ranks. The Supervisory Board also has collective experience in disciplines that are specifically relevant to Umicore’s non-financial 2030 RISE Strategy goals such as health and safety, talent attraction and retention and supply chain sustainability.

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