Royal DSM has announced the upcoming succession of CEO Feike Sijbesma, who will be handing over his responsibilities to his managing board colleagues Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze as co-CEO’s in February 2020 and will support a smooth transition until May 2020.
Together, Matchett and de Vreeze will maintain the focus on business performance, financial discipline, innovation, sustainability, and people, as DSM continue its journey. This dual leadership structure is rooted in the long history of collaboration between them, which has been observed by the Supervisory Board, and is expected to create a strong basis for continued profitable growth. In conjunction with their co-CO role, Matchett will retain her responsibilities as CFO, and de Vreeze will hold the COO responsibilities.
In a joint statement, Matchett and de Vreeze said: “We are excited to combine our mutual strengths as co-CEO’s, to ensure the continuation of DSM’s successful journey, creating brighter lives for all, and to lead our innovative, science-based company that has sustainability at its core. We are convinced that together we can deliver continued success for the company. Feike has demonstrated remarkable leadership, and we look forward to building further on his legacy.”
As co-CEO’s, Matchell will be focusing on financial management and capital markets communication, capital allocation, talent and culture development, as well as digital strategy and new ways of working. As for de Vreeze, he will be leading operational delivery, customer centricity, driving growth and efficiency as well as innovation and R&D programmes. Jointly they will be accountable for the performance of the company, and will drive the purpose led, performance driven strategy and M&A agenda.
