Heike van de Kerkhof has been appointed by Archroma’s board of directors to succeed current CEO Alexander Wessels effective Jan. 6, 2020. Wessels will be appointed as vice chairman of Archroma’s board of directors and will also take on a senior advisory role within SK Capital. The private equity investor is the owner of the Reinach, Switzerland-based producer of textile chemicals, paper specialties and emulsions.

Van de Kerkhof joins Archroma from Castrol, a business of BP, where she held the role of vice president, Western Hemisphere. Prior to BP, she held a variety of business leadership, commercial and operations roles at DuPont and Chemours in a career spanning almost thirty years. She also served as a non-executive director at Neste.