Biography

Dr. Uwe-Ernst Bufe was Chief Executive Officer of Degussa, and after the company’s merger with Huls in 1998, of Degussa-Huls AG, a specialty chemicals company which is now the core area of Evonik Industries, until May 2000. Before joining the executive board of Degussa AG in 1987, he was executive vice president of its U.S. subsidiary. In 2001 Dr. Bufe joined UBS and served as vice chairman of UBS Investment Banking and Deputy Chairman of UBS Deutschland until March 2009.

Dr. Bufe has been a Senior Advisor to Rhône since 2012. He has served as a trusted advisor to Rhône and been deeply involved in many investments and potential investments in the chemical, materials and minerals sector. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of ASK Chemicals. He also served on the Board of Directors of Coty from 2001 until 2011 and Unieuro.

Dr. Bufe was Deputy Chairman of Akzo Nobel N.V. (the Netherlands) until 2015, having joined the Supervisory Board in 2002. He was also a non-executive director of Umicore S.A. (Belgium) and a member of the Supervisory Board of Directors of Kali + Salz AG (Germany), Altana (Germany), Solvay S.A. (Belgium) and Sunpower (United States). He graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from Technische Universität München, Germany.