Dow: Leadership Changes Post-Dow Corning Restructuring

Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) and Dow Corning Corporation declared that Robert D. (Bob) Hansen, chairman, CEO and president, plans to retire from Dow Corning upon the completion of Dow’s ownership restructure transaction with Corning, Inc. The restructuring is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

Hansel will continue with the company for a few months in order to make sure that the ownership transition is smooth for the Dow Corning Silicones business. Hansen has served Dow Corning for 34 years, assuming the role of a leader in the finance and commercial business. He has also been the president of Dow Corning’s operations in Europe.

Dow has now named Howard Ungerleider, its vice chairman and chief financial officer as the chairman of Dow Corning, and Mauro Gregorio, currently vice president leading the Dow Corning integration, as CEO of Dow Corning. Both of them have been leading the integration efforts of Dow and Dow Corning, and developed an intimate understanding of Dow Corning’s silicones business.

Gregorio has worked across a number of downstream, market facing businesses on three continents. He also is an expert at commercial, supply chain, technical service and new business development. Additionally, Gregorio led Dow’s Elastomers and Electrical and Telecommunications portfolio, along with the Energy and Feedstocks business, before being elected to lead the Dow Corning transaction at year-end 2015.

Dow is expected to gain from the synergies associated with the Dow Corning Silicones business in 2016. Dow, in Dec 2015, said that it will take full control of Dow Corning – currently a 50-50 joint venture between Dow and Corning Inc. Dow expects to realize more than $1 billion in EBITDA synergies from the restructured ownership.

Dow currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked companies in the diversified chemical space include Akzo Nobel N.V. (OTC:AKZOY) , Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB) and Asahi Kasei Corp. (OTC:AHKSY) . All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).