The Supervisory Board of Royal DSM, the Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, is pleased to announce that it will propose to appoint Geraldine Matchett (42) as Member of the Managing Board of Directors as of 1 August 2014. As from 1 December 2014, she will then become Chief Financial Officer of Royal DSM, succeeding Rolf-Dieter Schwalb, who currently holds that position. The proposal will be tabled at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, 7 May 2014.
Geraldine Matchett is currently the Global Chief Financial Officer and member of the Operations Council of the SGS Group, a publicly quoted company on the SIX Swiss stock exchange and the world leading company in inspection, verification, testing and certification with 80,000 employees and annual revenues of approximately CHF 6 billion.
Geraldine has three nationalities (Swiss, British and French) and has previously worked in London for KPMG and in Switzerland for Deloitte as financial auditor and audit manager, handling clients in the food, pharma and chemical sectors. She has extensive experience with interaction with all relevant stakeholders, has been actively involved in corporate development activities and has managed many areas of the finance function across the world. She was recently voted CFO of the year in Switzerland for large companies.
Rolf-Dieter Schwalb has been the DSM CFO for 8 years, during which the company completed its transformation into a Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company. He will step down as CFO as of 1 December, but he will remain available for assistance till 2014 financial closing. The members of the DSM Managing Board and Supervisory Board wish to thank Mr. Schwalb for his contribution to DSM, his leadership in the finance area and his drive for integrated reporting and increased transparency. He has also been very instrumental in the shifts in DSM’s portfolio, where his background brought fresh perspectives to the table.
