Werner Wenning

Biography

Werner Wenning has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG since October 1, 2012. He was elected to this office by the members of the Supervisory Board on September 14, 2012 as successor to Dr. Manfred Schneider. Wenning was Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG from April 2002 until September 30, 2010. Born in Leverkusen-Opladen on October 21, 1946, Werner Wenning first joined Bayer on April 1, 1966 as a commercial trainee. After completing his vocational training and a one-year program in finance and accounting, he worked for a year in Corporate Auditing before being sent to Lima, Peru, in 1970 to establish and head up the finance department at the newly founded Bayer Industrial S.A. Starting on April 1, 1991, he was seconded for a year to the “Treuhandanstalt,” the Berlin-based privatization agency that helped to rebuild the economy in eastern Germany following reunification. In 1992, Wenning was appointed Managing Director of Bayer Hispania Industrial S.A., Barcelona, and Senior Bayer Representative for Spain. In April 1996 he returned to Leverkusen to become head of Corporate Planning and Controlling. Wenning was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management as Chief Financial Officer in February 1997 and took over as its Chairman in April 2002. Werner Wenning is also a member of the Shareholders' Committee of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Düsseldorf and a member of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG, München and the Henkel Management AG. From May 2011 to June 2016, he was also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of E.ON AG, Düsseldorf. He served as Vice President of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), Frankfurt, for four years until September 2011 and as VCI President from September 2005 to September 2007. He was also Vice President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Berlin.

Research Interest

Business Management and Development