Appointment of Alexander Collot D'Escury as new CEO

WAALWIJK, the Netherlands, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Current CEO Stef Kranendijk Becomes Chairman Effective October 1, 2012

Effective October 1, 2012, Stef Kranendijk will step down as Chief Executive Officer of Desso Holding BV ('Desso') and take up the position of Chairman. In this position he will, next to being Chairman of the Supervisory Board, take up an executive role focusing on areas as described below. At the same time Alexander Collot d'Escury (48), currently Chief Commercial Officer, will be appointed Chief Executive Officer.

     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20120305/517228 )

Stef Kranendijk comments: "Desso has gone through a healthy transformation over the past 5 years making it a company that continuously innovates through Creativity, Functionality and Cradle to Cradle^®. Thanks to the efforts of all employees this has led to consistent significant growth of Desso's market share and profitability. I have great confidence that Alexander will continue to lead Desso to even higher levels."

In his role as Chairman Stef will, next to his supervisory role, continue to drive the implementation of the Cradle to Cradle^® philosophy within Desso and will continue to communicate externally Desso's progress in having all products Cradle to Cradle^® certified by 2020. In addition he will continue to give support to the development of key markets that are relatively underdeveloped for Desso, both within and outside of Europe.

Website: http://www.desso.com