Dr. Marijn Dekkers

Dr. Marijn Dekkers was the first Bayer CEO to be appointed from outside the company. During his term of office, Bayer acquired, for example, the consumer care business of Merck & Co., Inc., floated the MaterialScience subgroup on the stock market under the name “Covestro,” and systematically focused on the Life Science businesses.

Under Dekkers’ leadership, Bayer’s previous structure - comprising a strategic management holding company and operational subgroups - was replaced by an integrated organization under the umbrella of the strong Bayer brand.

Born on September 22, 1957, in Tilburg, Netherlands, Dekkers studied chemistry and chemical engineering. He began his professional career in 1985 as a scientist at the corporate research center of General Electric in the United States, gaining experience in various units of the company before joining AlliedSignal (subsequently Honeywell International Inc.) in 1995.

In 2000, Dekkers became Chief Operating Officer of Thermo Electron Corporation, the world’s leading manufacturer of laboratory instruments (later renamed Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. following the acquisition of laboratory supplier Fisher Scientific). As of 2002, he served as this company’s President and CEO.

After spending 25 years of his career in the United States, Marijn Dekkers joined Bayer on January 1, 2010. From October 1, 2010 to April 30, 2016 he was Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO) of Bayer AG. In this function Dekkers took over the two-year presidency of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), Frankfurt.