Umicore Building Products Reorganizes

by Jonathan McGaha | March 20, 2012 12:00 am

Umicore Building Products announces the reorganization of the corporation’s building products division subsidiaries under the common leadership of Frank Martinelli, commercial director of Paris, France, who, in turn, reports to Pierre Van de Bruaene, senior vice president, also of Paris.

Norbert Schneider, president of Umicore Building Products USA[1], will assume the responsibility of General Manager of Asia Pacific as well as the Americas. The subsidiaries in China, Japan, India, and Australia also will now report to him.

As support for Schneider, Umicore has appointed Michel Le Donge as Marketing Manager for the region. Schneider will continue to work out of the Raleigh, North Carolina, office, while Le Donge remains based in Paris.

“This reorganization enables us to service our markets even better, making us an even nimbler and more flexible organization,” said Pierre Van de Bruaene, senior vice president. “It will allow us to continue building our leadership position through innovation and customer focus for the benefit of our customers and shareholders worldwide.”

“[Schneider and Le Donge] have extensive experience in building teams and markets,”notes Franck Martinelli, commercial director. “They will not just continue, they will expedite our growth in Asia, Australia, and the Americas through their drive and leadership.”

Norbert Schneider sees this reorganization as, “a great challenge and a great honor. There are certainly differences between the individual markets, but I am sure there is more that unites us then what makes us different. I will do my best to provide the leadership necessary for the company and the team members to grow.”

Schneider, who has been President of UBP U.S. for the past 12 years, added, “I am sure that the lessons I have learned over the past 12 years will pay dividends in this new assignment. I am happy that I have a strong leadership team with dedicated and talented individuals, such as our directors Laurent Heindryckx and Daniel Nicely here at UBP US, who allow me to delegate more of the operational and tactical work to them while at the same time taking on this new challenge.”

Michel Le Donge also expressed his excitement over the opportunity “to share my experiences in the Far East now with my colleagues in the additional markets. We not only have a huge amount of things to learn from each other, but VMZINC also has more innovative products and systems to launch in the near future and I look forward to bringing those to the markets.”

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