Arkema CEO Thierry Le Henaff is the 2024 ICIS CEO of the Year

LONDON and NEW YORK, July 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS is pleased to announce Thierry Le Henaff, chairman and CEO of France-based Arkema, as the winner of the 2024 ICIS CEO of the Year Award for outstanding achievement.

The ICIS CEO of the Year Award is unique in the chemical industry as the winner is selected based on a vote among industry CEOs in the ICIS Top 40 Power Players – a global ranking of leaders driving the greatest positive impact on their companies and the chemical industry, published in ICIS Chemical Business.

In selecting the winner, each of the ICIS Top 40 Power Players was asked to vote for three individuals based on achievements in Profitability/Shareholder value, ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), Innovation (technology, product, business process) and success in M&A/portfolio management.

Le Henaff will receive the ICIS CEO of the Year Award in a video Q&A interview with ICIS later this year.

"It is a great honor to receive this prestigious award. It is all the more invaluable for me as it reflects the choice of my peers, the CEOs of other chemical groups around the world. I share it with the Arkema teams. This award is first and foremost theirs," said Le Henaff.

"Through their unwavering commitment, professionalism and spirit of conquest, they have enabled Arkema's transformation towards specialty materials. This award recognizes our strategy focused on innovative and high-performance materials that help deliver solutions developed with and by our customers for a more sustainable world," he added.

"Arkema's Thierry Le Henaff is engineering one of the most ambitious transformations in the chemical industry through M&A and innovation, positioning the company as a leader in higher margin and growth specialty chemicals and materials," said Jeff Skelton, CEO of ICIS.

"Arkema is also on the cutting edge of sustainability, investing in technologies and businesses enabling e-mobility, decarbonisation, renewable energy and the production of biofuels and bio-based polymers," said Joseph Chang, Global Editor of ICIS Chemical Business.

Le Henaff has made key acquisitions to boost the company's growth profile, including US-based Dow's flexible packaging laminating adhesives business (2024, close pending) and a majority stake in South Korea-based PI Advanced Materials serving advanced electronics and e-mobility (December 2023).

Arkema is also investing in start-ups with potentially disruptive technology. In April, the company agreed to acquire a majority stake in Austria-based Proionic, which is developing ionic liquids to enable the next generation of solid lithium-ion batteries.

Thierry Le Henaff has been chairman and CEO of Arkema since the company's stock market listing in 2006 when it was spun off from Total.

Previous winners of ICIS CEO awards as voted on by the ICIS Top 40 Power Players include ExxonMobil Product Solutions president Karen McKee (2023), Dow CEO Jim Fitterling (2022), former BASF CEO Martin Brudermuller (2021), Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser (2020), former LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel (2019, 2018), former BASF CEO Kurt Bock (2017), INEOS chairman Jim Ratcliffe (2016), former Dow CEO Andrew Liveris (2015), former LyondellBasell CEO Jim Gallogly (2014) and former PPG CEO Charles Bunch (2013).

About ICIS

ICIS – Independent Commodity Intelligence Services – helps businesses through seamlessly delivering data and analytics, across the chemical, fertilizer and energy markets. A trusted source and benchmark for price information and insight across key commodities markets worldwide. Our independent, transparent market intelligence informs thousands of quality decisions every day, taking the pressure out of negotiations and giving customers space for more innovative thinking, through published datasets including price assessments, price forecasts, supply and demand fundamentals and more. Over 150 years of shaping the world by connecting markets to optimize the world's valuable resources. With a global team of more than 600 experts, ICIS has employees based in London, New York, Houston, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Perth.

ICIS is part of RELX, a FTSE10 company with a market cap of £65bn and an employee base of over 35,000 experts across 40 countries.

About RELX

RELX is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation is approximately £65bn, €77bn, $84bn.

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