Marijn Dekkers

Life

Dekkers grew up as the youngest of three children of a merchant in the Dutch city of Tilburg. After attending the local schools, St. Aloysius (primary school) and St. Odulphus (Lyceum), in 1976 he began studying chemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. Three years later he switched to chemical technology at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he received his master's degree and PhD in chemical engineering. From 1985 he worked for General Electric (GE) in research departments in the USA and the Netherlands. In 1988 he was Research Director of the GE range of polymers and subsequently held management positions in various polymer units at GE.

In 1995, Dekkers joined Allied Signal (subsequently Honeywell International Inc.) and took over the management of various business units. In 2000, he became Chief Operating Officer at Boston-based Thermo Electron Corporation, one of the world's leading specialists in the manufacture of laboratory instruments. Within a short time, Dekkers implemented a complete corporate reorganization and became President and CEO in 2002. In this role he initiated further extensive restructuring measures, divesting various organizational units and strengthening the company's core business by means of targeted acquisitions, including the purchase in 2006 of the significantly larger laboratory consumables supplier Fisher Scientific. Dekkers thereby created a company (Thermo Fisher Scientific) with 35,000 employees in six business groups.

On 1 January 2010 Dekkers was appointed to the board of Bayer AG and on 1 October 2010 he took over as CEO from Werner Wenning.

On 3 June 2014 Bayer AG announced that its Supervisory Board had extended Marijn Dekkers' term as CEO by two years, on expiration of the initial five-year period. Dekkers cited family reasons for extending his contract only until the end of 2016. He left Bayer on 30 April 2016 and was succeeded by Werner Baumann on 1 May 2016. Since April 2016 he is the Chairman of Unilever. He is also a member of Unilever’s Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

Dekkers is a member of the Board of Directors of General Electric in the USA. He is President of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), Frankfurt, and Vice President of the Federation of German Industry (BDI), Berlin. Dekkers is also a member of the Business Council and the Business Roundtable, two U.S.-based associations of business leaders and CEOs.

Awards and recognition

"Manager of the Year 2014" by German business magazine "Manager Magazin"

"Business person of the Year 2015" by the "Finanzen Verlag" publishing group and the readers of its publications "€uro am Sonntag", "€uro" and "Börse online"

"Most Innovative CEO International 2015" by the German industry's "Innovation Award"

Controversy

In 2013 some controversy was sparked during a Financial Times panel discussion with relation to Bayer's kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar.

He spoke at a conference in 2014, saying

So now, is this going to have a big effect on our business model? No, because we did not develop this product for the Indian market, let's be honest. I mean, you know, we developed this product for Western patients who can afford this product, quite honestly.

Médecins Sans Frontières responded to Dekkers comment saying that it

sums up everything that is wrong with the multinational pharmaceutical industry. Bayer is effectively admitting that the drugs they develop are deliberately going to be rationed to the wealthiest patients.

Dekkers replied to this, referring to the decision made by the Indian government, not to protect a patent on Nexavar and the intellectual property of Bayer. He also said:

I regret that what was a quick response from me within the framework of a panel discussion at the recent FT Pharma conference has come across in a different way as it was meant by myself. It could not be more opposite to what I want and we do at Bayer.

Personal life

Dekkers holds both Dutch and U.S. citizenship. He is married and lives with his wife Andra Moffett Dekkers and his three daughters in Düsseldorf. He is a passionate tennis player.