Michael Pontzen has been appointed as a member of Lanxess' management board effective April 1, 2015. He will assume the role of CFO at the specialty chemicals company. Pontzen currently heads Lanxess' corporate controlling group. He will succeed Dr. Bernhard Düttmann, who is leaving the company effective March 31, 2015. Düttmann has been CFO at Lanxess since 2011.

Michael Pontzen was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, in 1969. After studying business administration, he held various positions at Ferrostaal, MAN and EADS. He joined Lanxess in November 2004 as head of the investor relations group. In October 2008, he became head of corporate finance within the treasury group. He additionally assumed responsibility for risk and cash management from spring 2009. Pontzen has been head of the corporate controlling group since January 2012.