Givaudan announces CFO succession

In line with Givaudan’s long term succession planning, Othmar Vock, Chief Financial Officer of Givaudan, will retire at the end of 2004. His successor will be Matthias Waehren, presently with the Dutch company DSM Nutritional Products. Mr. Waehren will join Givaudan on August 15th and undergo a comprehensive introduction into his new function.

A graduate of the University of Basel, Switzerland, Mr. Waehren started his career in 1983 at Corporate Audit of Roche. In 1988 he became Finance Director of Roche Korea, followed in 1990 by a 6 year assignment as head of Finance and Management Services at Nippon Roche in Tokyo. In 1996 he was appointed Vice President Finance and Information Technology at Roche USA in Nutley, N.J. Returning from the US in 2000 Mr. Waehren took over the responsibility as Head of Finance and Informatics of the Roche Vitamins Division where he played an important role in the unbundling of the Division and the sale to DSM. As of October 1st 2003 he became DSM project director supporting the transformation and integration of Roche Vitamins into DSM.

Mr. Vock looks back on a longstanding international career in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1994 he joined Givaudan as Chief Financial Officer. He played a key role in the integration of Givaudan and Roure as well as in the acquisition and integration of Tastemaker in 1997 and FIS in 2002. He was instrumental in the unbundling of Givaudan from Roche and the spin-off of Givaudan as a publicly traded SMI company in 2000. After retirement Mr. Vock will remain active in an advisory capacity for selected tasks.

For further information please contact
Peter Wullschleger, Givaudan Media Relations
T +41 22 780 9093
E peter_b.wullschleger@givaudan.com