New managers in UNIPETROL and PKN ORLEN
PKN Orlen announces senior appointments to drive the further integration of Unipetrol and to strengthen the Group's upstream team.
At a meeting held on 16th February 2006, the Supervisory Board of UNIPETROL, a.s. unanimously agreed to appoint Mr Francois Vleugels as a Member of the Board of Directors as of April 1st 2006 and, at the same time recommended to the Board of Directors of UNIPETROL a.s. his candidature for the position of CEO and Director General.
Mr. Francois Vleugels was selected through an open competition carried out with the participation of a professional recruitment consulting company. When making its choice, the Supervisory Board was guided by the criteria defined when the competition was announced, i.e. command of the Czech language, knowledge of the international oil market, experience in managing large organizations, and with the ability to implement the effective integration of the UNIPETROL Group with PKN ORLEN S.A.
Mr. F. Vleugels is 57 years old, and is a graduate from the Belgian Catholic University in Leuven with a degree in analytical chemistry. He has 20 years of professional experience in the petrochemical sector, and has been responsible for the operation of many industrial and petrochemical installations and business processes. He acquired his professional experience in such leading chemical corporations as: Imperial Chemical Industries, Eastman Chemical Company - a part of the Eastman-Kodak Group and HEXION Specialty Chemicals. At Eastman Chemical he occupied the position of CEO for the regions of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was recently the deputy CEO for logistics at HEXION Specialty Chemicals. He has lived in the Czech Republic since 2003.
At the same time, the Supervisory Board expressed its appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Marek Mroczkowski for fulfilling the duties of the CEO since 2005. Mr. Marek Mroczkowski will remain in his current position of Deputy CEO and Director of Finance.
As of 15 February the position of Director of the Upstream International Office in PKN ORLEN has been taken by Mr. Karsten Geiger.
Karsten Geiger is 41 years old, and is an outstanding professional in the area of the acquisition and procurement of oil deposits, particularly in Russia and the countries of the Middle East. Previously he was the chief representative of the Austrian OMV Group in Russia. He is a graduate from the Geology Faculty of Berlin Technical University and holds a Ph.D. degree in Geology from the University of Oklahoma. He also worked as a geologist in mining projects of MOBIL and Exxon corporations.
The above appointments contribute to the implementation of the assigned task of building a powerful, multinational, regional and fully integrated fuel corporation.
