Our Board

Nationality: British

Position and date of appointment
Chair of the Board, and of the Nomination and the Disclosure Committees. Caroline joined the Board in March 2015 and was appointed Chair in December 2020, having previously been chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nomination and the Remuneration Committees.

Key appointments
Caroline is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the employee engagement committee of Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc, and a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the audit committee of Shepherd Building Group Limited, a private company that owns Portakabin Limited. She has an honorary role on the board of the University of Manchester.

Skills and experience
Caroline has more than 40 years’ experience of working with large global organisations in the chemicals sector and other industries. Her experience includes delivering value from M&A, turnaround, culture change and cost optimisation. She was a partner in and sat on the board of the assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with responsibility for all people matters. Caroline is a chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Nationality: Swiss

Position and date of appointment
Chief Executive Officer since November 2021; member of the Disclosure Committee.

Key appointments
Michael is a Non-Executive Director of Glaston Oyj (Nasdaq Helsinki) and sits on subsidiary boards of the Indutrade Group

Skills and experience
Michael is an established public market CEO with a track record of driving performance through strong operational management and strategic actions, including M&A. He was previously CEO of Conzzeta AG (now Bystronic AG) in Zurich, a global industrial company listed on the SIX Swiss exchange. Before Conzzeta, Michael spent 18 years with Clariant, leading its global industrial and consumer specialities division from 2010 to 2015. This followed 13 years in leadership roles in Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong, and in Canada and Turkey.

Nationality: British and Australian

Position and date of appointment
Chief Financial Officer since July 2022; member of the Disclosure Committee.

Key appointments
Lily is a Non-Executive Director and member of the audit committee of DCC plc, a FTSE 100 listed international sales, marketing and support services business.

Skills and experience
Lily is a highly experienced CFO. She has worked in the manufacturing and engineering sectors for more than 20 years, and joined Synthomer from Essentra plc, a FTSE 250 components and solutions business, where she was CFO. Lily was previously CFO at Xaar plc, a UK-listed inkjet technology developer, and Smiths Detection business, a division of Smiths Group plc.

Nationality: British

Position and date of appointment
Non-Executive Director since 1981; member of the Nomination Committee; designated Non-Executive Director to lead workforce engagement.

Key appointments
Alexander is Managing Director of CairnSea Investments Limited, a private investment company. He also manages the family’s grant-giving charity and other interests.

Skills and experience
Before CairnSea was established, Alexander was a director of Morgan Grenfell & Co and then Lazard Brothers & Co.

Nationality: German

Position and date of appointment
Independent Non-Executive Director since September 2023; member of the Audit, the Remuneration and the Nomination Committees.

Key appointments
Martina is a non-executive director of Sasol Limited, the global chemicals and energy company. Between 2017 and 2023, Martina was a supervisory Board member of Neste Corporation.

Skills and experience
Martina has considerable executive experience in the chemical industry. Between 2003 and 2016, she led what became OXEA GmbH, after its creation as a joint venture between Celanese AG and Degussa AG. Prior to this, Martina held a number of senior roles at Celanese and its predecessor company, Hoechst AG, focusing on strategy, operations and capital investment, human resources, and innovation and technology. Martina began her career as a research chemist at Hoechst after receiving a PhD in chemistry from the Technical University of Munich.

Nationality: German and Italian

Position and date of appointment
Independent Non-Executive Director since July 2021; member of the Audit, the Remuneration and the Nomination Committees.

Key appointments
Roberto is Chair of CABB Group (Germany) and a member of the boards of Aerogel Corporation (USA) and Clariant (Switzerland).

Skills and experience
Roberto has more than 35 years’ chemical sector experience in both commodity and speciality segments, mostly at BASF, where he held senior operational roles covering international sales, marketing and procurement and served on a number of joint-venture boards. His final role at BASF was as president of its styrenics business, which was carved out as part of the Styrolution joint venture, and which Roberto led as chief executive for three years until 2014. Roberto has previous board-level experience in Saudi Arabia, Finland and Belgium.

Nationality: Malaysian

Position and date of appointment
Non-Executive Director since 2002; first joined the Board in 1993 and stood down in 2000 to become an Alternate Director; member of the Nomination Committee.

Key appointments
Hau Hian is the Managing Director of Batu Kawan Bhd, a listed Malaysian investment holding company, and a Non-Executive Director of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd.

Batu Kawan Bhd is the largest shareholder, with a 47% stake, of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, which is Synthomer’s largest shareholder.

Skills and experience
Hau Hian has experience in organisational transformations, acquisitions, chemical and manufacturing operations and sustainability matters.

Nationality: British

Position and date of appointment
Non-Executive Director since June 2022 and Senior Independent Director since May 2023; Chair of the Audit Committee; member of the Nomination and the Remuneration Committees.

Key appointments
Ian is a Non-Executive Director of Anglo American plc, and a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Affinity Water Limited. Previously, he served on the boards of BAE Systems, Vistry Group (formerly Bovis Homes Group), Cairn Energy, Mediclinic International, VT Group, Cable & Wireless and Amey plc.

Skills and experience
Ian has extensive board experience as a former chief executive and as a non-executive for several international industrial organisations. He serves as chair of the remuneration committee at Anglo American plc, where he is also the Senior Independent Director. Ian’s senior executive career was at Balfour Beatty plc, a global infrastructure business, which he joined as finance director in 1996 and where he served as chief executive from 2005 to 2013.

Nationality: American

Position and date of appointment
Independent Non-Executive Director since September 2018; Chair of the Remuneration Committee; member of the Audit and the Nomination Committees.

Key appointments
Holly is a Non-Executive Director of Kimball Electronics Inc, where she chairs the talent, culture and compensation committee. She serves as a Non-Executive Director of Albermarle Corporation, where she is a member of the executive compensation and the capital investment committees.

Skills and experience
Until 2005, Holly was group vice president, petrochemicals at BP. She has worked in the global chemical industry for more than 25 years and held senior positions across North America, Europe and Asia. In addition, since 2016 Holly has held non-executive director roles for global companies headquartered in the USA and spent 12 years on the board of a Norwegian-listed company.

Position and date of appointment
Chief Counsel and Company Secretary since December 2022.

Key appointments
Anant is a Non-Executive Council Member at City, University of London.

Other executive responsibilities
Member of the Executive Sustainability Steering Committee and the Executive Risk Committee.

Skills and experience
Skills and experience Anant joined Synthomer having spent five years at defence and security company Ultra Electronics Group, latterly as general counsel, Europe and Asia Pacific. Before moving into industry, he worked at international law firm Slaughter and May, where he developed a broad corporate, commercial and M&A practice, including experience working in Hong Kong and Spain.