Bayer names new CEO

Bayer AG has named Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s Marijn E. Dekkers to succeed Werner Wenning as CEO next year.

Dekkers is currently president and CEO at U.S.-based Thermo Fisher, a laboratory equipment maker. He will join the pharma and polymers group’s board on January 1, 2010, initially as CEO of Bayer Healthcare.

According to a statement from the Leverkusen, Germany-based Bayer, this will mark the first time an outsider has been appointed to run the 146-year-old German drugmaker.

Wenning will extend his contract by eight months through Sept. 30, 2010, the statement continued, after which Dekkers will take over.

“Mr Wenning has successfully steered our company for the past seven years. We are grateful to him for consenting to extend his contract of service, thereby ensuring both continuity and an adequate period of transition in these economically difficult times,” said former Bayer chairman and current supervisory board chairman Manfred Schneider.

Another change at the top of Bayer will see finance director Klaus Kuhn retiring next spring to be succeeded by Werner Baumann.