Dr. Robert Gnann (51) has taken over as president of Wacker Silicones effective April 1, 2016. He succeeds Dr. Christian Hartel, who was appointed to the Wacker Group’s Executive Board in early November 2015. Gnann comes to Wacker from Momentive Performance Materials, where he headed the chemical company’s elastomer and European activities.

After studying chemistry at the University of Cologne, Germany, and earning his doctorate, Robert Gnann began his career at GE Silicones in the USA in 1996. He then moved on to Bayer and Lanxess in Canada and Germany, where he held managerial positions in such areas as production and technology. From 2008, Gnann was responsible for the elastomers business unit at Momentive Performance Materials and, in 2010, additionally took charge of the company’s European activities.