Werner Wenning

Werner Wenning was Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG from April 2002 until September 30, 2010. In 2012 Wenning succeeded Dr. Manfred Schneider as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG, holding this office until April 28, 2020.

Born in Leverkusen-Opladen on October 21, 1946, Werner Wenning first joined Bayer on April 1, 1966 as a commercial trainee. After completing his vocational training and a one-year program in finance and accounting, he worked for a year in Corporate Auditing before being sent to Lima, Peru, in 1970 to establish and head up the finance department at the newly founded Bayer Industrial S.A.

When he returned to Germany, Wenning spent a further three years in the Corporate Auditing department. In 1978, he went back to Lima as Managing Director and administrative head of the Peruvian company.

In 1983, Wenning was appointed head of the staff department of what was then the Health Care Sector in Leverkusen. Three years later he transferred to the Plastics Business Group as head of marketing for thermoplastics. In 1987 he assumed responsibility for this business group’s global marketing operations.

Starting on April 1, 1991, he was seconded for a year to the “Treuhandanstalt,” the Berlin-based privatization agency that helped to rebuild the economy in eastern Germany following reunification. In 1992, Wenning was appointed Managing Director of Bayer Hispania Industrial S.A., Barcelona, and Senior Bayer Representative for Spain. In April 1996 he returned to Leverkusen to become head of Corporate Planning and Controlling. Wenning was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management as Chief Financial Officer in February 1997 and took over as its Chairman in April 2002.

Wenning served as Vice President of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), Frankfurt, for four years until September 2011 and as VCI President from September 2005 to September 2007. He was also Vice President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Berlin.

Werner Wenning is married and has two daughters and four grandchildren.