08 December 2020 – The General Assembly of ISOPA elected Herman Motmans, Sr. Product Director Dow Polyurethanes, as the President of ISOPA. Mr Motmans succeeds Mike Fowles, Vice President Global Supply Chain at Huntsman, after five successful years of presidency. The General Assembly further confirmed the election of Christopher Metz, Vice President Business Management Isocyanates Europe at BASF, as the new Vice-President of ISOPA.
The election of ISOPA’s new leadership comes at an important time for the diisocyanates and polyols industry. The Industry is working hard to implement new training requirements for workers across the EU while the ambitious agenda of the European Green Deal will present new challenges and opportunities for the diisocyanates and polyols value-chain.
Jörg Palmersheim, Secretary General for ISOPA/ALIPA, said:
“I am very pleased to welcome Herman as our new President and Christopher as our new Vice-President. They bring invaluable industry experience and deep expertise to ISOPA’s leadership team. Under their leadership, ISOPA is ready to navigate the challenges and opportunities for our industry in the coming years.”
The ISOPA Secretariat and Members wish to express their gratitude to Mike Fowles for his incredibly hard work, leadership and dedication to our industry over the past five years. Mr Fowles championed ISOPA’s work with our stakeholders to promote the highest standards of best practice in the distribution and use of diisocyanates and polyols.
About ISOPA
ISOPA represents major European manufacturers of aromatic diisocyanates and polyols, the main raw materials used to make polyurethanes. More information on diisocyanates, their applications and ISOPA’s product stewardship initiatives can be found on our website.
About Herman Motmans, Sr. Product Director for Dow Polyurethanes in Europe, Middle East, Africa & India
Herman leads all product and asset management related activities of Dow’s Isocyanates, Polyols and Systems business in EMEAI (Europe, Middle East, Africa and India).
After having spent more than 10 years at Union Carbide, in Antwerp and Geneva, in various commercial and business roles, Herman joined Dow in 2001 in Germany in the Water purification business as global marketing manager. In 2005, he moved to the Polyurethanes business in Switzerland where he held various posts, first in product management, then as global business director for Energy Efficiency and later as global PU marketing director. He was named to his current role in 2014 and added global Sr. product director responsibilities for MDI and Systems in 2019.
Herman has been president of the III (International Isocyanates Institute) for the last 4 years and a member of the Executive Committee of ISOPA since 2014.
He has earned a Master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and holds a postgraduate in Business Economics.
About Christopher Metz, Vice President Isocyanates, PO & Glycols Europe, Middle & Africa at BASF
Chris manages BASF’s Isocyanate, PO and Glycol business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. In this role, he is responsible for all sales, supply chain, product management and CSO related topics.
Chris joined BASF in the Coatings Division North America in 2002. In 2007 he moved to the Polyurethane division in Wyandotte, MI and took over the business management for the North American region. During his time in BASF, Chris has held various positions in Product Management, Business Management and Strategic Planning with increasing scope and responsibilities for various Divisions globally. Throughout his career, Chris has spent nearly ten years in the polyurethane industry.
Since 2019, he has been in his current position as Vice President at BASF and in the same year joined the Board of ISOPA.
Chris holds a Masters degree in business administration from Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences and his MBA degree in International Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.