Supervisory Board
Chairman
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
Chairman of the Investment Committee since
27 April 2023
Member
Date appointed to Board
30 April 2020
Education
Law - University Complutense of Madrid, Spain
Experience
Mr 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. In September 1999 he was appointed Chairman of 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 of 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, Mr 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
Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2026
Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
9 December 2020
Member of the Sustainability Committee since
27 April 2023
Independent member
Date appointed to Board
29 April 2021
Education
Business Administration - Academy of Administration and Economics (Verwaltungs-und Wirtschaftsakademie – VWA), Germany
Experience
Mrs. 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 Mrs. Behrendt assumed the position 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
Member of the Sustainability Committee since
27 April 2023
Member of the Investment Committee since
27 April 2023
Independent member
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 Honor 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
Independent board member of Mediafin, Belgium
Independent board member of Antwerp Management School, Belgium
Non-executive board member of Ligentec SA, Switzerland
Member of the supervisory board of SMART Photonics, Netherlands
Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2025
Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since
26 April 2018
Member of the Sustainability Committee since
27 April 2023
Deputy Chairman
Independent member
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
Independent member
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
Member of the Audit Committee since
27 April 2023
Member
Date appointed to Board
27 April 2023
Education
Master of Science in Business Engineering - Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, Belgium
Experience
Marc Grynberg was Umicore's Chief Executive Officer from November 2008 to November 2021. During his CEO mandate, he positioned Umicore as a global leader in clean mobility materials and recycling. Marc joined Umicore in 1996, served as CFO of the Company between 2000 and 2006 and headed the Automotive Catalysts business from 2006 to 2008. Prior to joining Umicore, Marc held several management positions at DuPont de Nemours in Brussels and Geneva.
External appointments
Independent, non-executive director of Nexans, member of its Strategy & Sustainability Committee, Audit & Risk Committee and Climate Director.
Independent, non-executive director of Wienerberger, member of its Innovation & Sustainability Committee, as well as of its Audit & Risk Committee.
Member of the Investment Committee since
27 April 2023
Independent member
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 a nearly 30-year career with Shell in 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
Chairperson of Audit Committee, UK Hydrographic Office
Board Member and Audit Committee Member, Spectris plc
Expiration of mandate
Annual General Meeting of 2025
Member of the Audit Committee since
01 September 2022
Chairwoman of the Audit Committee since
27 April 2023
Member of the Sustainability Committee since
27 April 2023
Member
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 2025
Member of the Audit Committee since
25 April 2019
Member of the Investment Committee since
27 April 2023
Honorary Chairman
