Werner Wenning set for return to Bayer

Bayer's former chairman and CEO Werner Wenning is set to return to the German pharma company in the Autumn as chairman of its supervisory board.

Wenning was chairman of the company's board of management from 2002 to 2010 and will take over as chairman of the supervisory board from Dr Manfred Schneider in October for a five-year term of office.

Wenning started at Bayer as a trainee and subsequently spent nearly 45 years with the company.

During this time he helped establish Bayer's Peruvian subsidiary, was seconded for a  year to the Treuhandanstalt - the Berlin-based privatisation agency that helped rebuild East Germany's economy after reunification, and served as managing Director of Bayer's largest company in Spain.

Also nominated for election to the supervisory board are two new stockholder representatives: Sue Rataj, who sits on the board of US chemicals company Cabot, and Thomas Ebeling.

Ebling is currently CEO of German media conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1 Media, but served in a series of senior roles at Novartis between 1998 and 2009. These included CEO of its global pharma business and then CEO of its consumer health division.