Dr. Hariolf Kottmann

Hariolf Kottmann was born in 1955 in Göppingen/Germany. He earned his PhD in organic chemistry in 1984 at the University of Stuttgart. The following year he launched his career at the former Hoechst AG in Frankfurt holding several key management positions. In 1998, he joined Celanese Ltd in New Jersey (USA) as a member of the Executive Committee and Head of the Organic Chemicals business.  From 2001 on, as a member of the Executive Committee of SGL Carbon AG, he was responsible for the Advanced Materials Division and the Eastern Europe and Asia regions. Hariolf Kottmann became CEO of Clariant Ltd on October 1, 2008.

Under his leadership Clariant was transformed of into a leading specialty chemicals company focussing on profitable growth and sustainable value creation. As a core element of this transformation he introduced and established Clariant Excellence, a comprehensive program for continuous improvement and a driver for cultural change. Hariolf Kottman is member of the EC and Board at the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) since 2012. Besides, he supports various social and cultural projects like a UNICEF education program. He is also board member at the ETH Zurich foundation as well as the Aventis foundation.

You can find all his contributions to Spotlight Europe here