Christoph Kowitz, currently head of WACKER Group Research, will take over management of the US national company Wacker Chemical Corporation (WCC) at the beginning of May. He succeeds David Wilhoit, who has been responsible for the group’s North and Central America business since 2015 and is now retiring.
Christoph Kowitz previously headed the WACKER Group’s central research and development for six years. “I’m looking forward to my new job in the USA,” says the doctor of chemistry. As a manager in the WACKER SILICONES division, he was already in close contact with silicone production and application technology at the US locations in Adrian and Ann Arbor in the state of Michigan. “The United States is and remains one of WACKER’s most important markets. With our products from all business areas, we are ideally positioned to support the climate-neutral transformation of US industry with innovative solutions. The US government is driving this development forward with numerous investment programs. My goal is to make optimal use of the opportunities this creates for our growth.”
Kowitz has already held a variety of leadership positions. After completing his doctorate in organic chemistry and polymer chemistry, he started his professional career as a product developer at BASF AG in Ludwigshafen in 1996. From 1997 onwards he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey in Asia and Europe for several years. After several positions in the chemical industry, including at specialty chemicals manufacturer Cognis, Kowitz moved to WACKER in 2013, where he took over management of the Performance Silicones unit within the WACKER SILICONES division. Since 2018, he has headed central corporate research and thus also innovation management in the WACKER Group.
