Daniele Ferrari, CEO of ENI’s plastics subsidiary Versalis and current president of the European plastics manufacturers association PlasticsEurope, has taken on a new responsibility. On Oct. 25, the 55-year-old Italian executive was elected President of the European Chemical Industry Council CEFIC at the organization’s annual General Assembly.

Ferrari succeeds Hariolf Kottmann, until earlier this month CEO of Swiss specialty chemicals producer Clariant and now chairman of that company’s supervisory board. Kottman had held the CEFIC position since October 2016.

Commenting on the change at the top, Marco Mensink, CEFIC’s director general, said that with the challenges of Brexit, upcoming EU elections and the transition to a low-carbon economy, the industry needs a strong and capable leader.      

The new CEFIC president said his ambition is to promote a European environment in which the chemical industry can grow and support the transition to a sustainable circular economic model while at the same time continuing to help the industry attract investment and thrive at a global level.

Ferrari will continue in his role at PlasticsEurope until handing over to a successor next month. The manager is also vice president for Europe of the Italian Chemical Association (Federchimica) and serves as a non-executive director of US chemical producer Huntsman and its spinoff Venator Materials. He is also chairman of Matrica, a renewables joint venture of Versalis and Italy’s Novamont.