Wolfgang Büchele (PhD, Chemistry) has been appointed Kemira Oyj's President and CEO as of April 1, 2012. He has been a member of Kemira's Board of Directors since 2009.Harri Kerminen will retire on April 1 2012 after leading Kemira through a major strategic change into a water chemistry company and turning the company around to a profitable path."Kemira's Board of Directors started the CEO succession process this summer due to Harri Kerminen's anticipated retirement in 2013. The process was faster than expected and therefore we agreed with Harri Kerminen that he will retire earlier than planned. As a member of Kemira's pension fund he has the right for this," says Pekka Paasikivi, Chairman of the Board.Wolfgang Büchele has spent most of his career, from 1993 until 2007 in BASF's Fine Chemicals organization in Europe, China and United States. Since 2009 he has been CEO of Hungarian company BorsodChem. /AA