Supervisory board

Date appointed to Board 

10 May 2000 (date appointment Chair: 19 November 2008)

Education 

Law – KU Leuven, Belgium

Experience 

Thomas Leysen became Chair of Umicore in November 2008 after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Umicore since 2000. During this mandate, he transformed the former Union Minière from a non-ferrous company into an international materials technology group called Umicore. He joined the group in 1993 as member of the Executive Committee, and successively managed several industrial divisions.

External Appointments 

• Chair, Mediahuis, a European newspaper publishing group

• Chair, DSM-Firmenich

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2027

Chair since

19 November 2008

Chair of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since

19 November 2008

Chair of the Investment Committee since

15 February 2023

Date appointed to Board 

25 April 2024

Education 

• École Polytechnique, Paris, France
• École Nationale d'administration, France

Experience 

Frédéric Oudéa, a French citizen, is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale d'administration. He spent most of his career in the banking sector, at Société Générale, where he was appointed CEO from 2008 until 2023. He is currently chair of Sanofi and senior independent director of Capgemini. He is also senior executive advisor to GBL Group.

External appointments

• Chair of Sanofi 
• Senior Independent Director of Capgemini 
• Senior Executive advisor of GBL

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2027

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since

25 April 2024

Member of the Sustainability Committee since

25 April 2024

Date appointed to Board 

29 April 2021

Education 

Business Administration - Academy of Administration and Economics (Verwaltungs-und Wirtschaftsakademie – VWA), Germany

Experience 

Birgit Behrendt held throughout her career various global leadership positions at Ford Motor Company and was elected a company officer and vice president Global Purchasing in 2013. From 2018 through 2019, she assumed the position vice president Joint Ventures, Alliances & Commercial Affairs. She is currently a Senior Advisor and Venture Partner at AP Ventures LLP, London.

External appointments

• Member Supervisory Boards: Thyssenkrupp AG, KION Group AG and Rolls-Royce Holdings plc 
• Member of the Board of Directors,  Infinium Holdings, Inc.
• Member of the Administrative Board, Stulz Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2027

Chair and member of the Sustainability Committee since

27 April 2023

Member of the Investment Committee since

15 February 2023

Date appointed to Board 

26 April 2016

Education 

Master Applied Language Studies Dutch, English, Spanish - Ghent University, Belgium

Experience 

Françoise Chombar is Co-founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of Melexis, a producer of smart sensor and driver semiconductors for automotive, industrial, durable consumer and health applications, where she served as Chief Executive Officer from 2003 until August 2021. She officiated previously as planning manager at Elmos GmbH and operations manager and director at several companies within the Elex group.

Françoise was a mentor in the Belgian women's network Sofia for 17 years and is committed to STEM and gender balance advocacy, for which she received a Flemish Community Honor in 2019. In 2012, she was granted an Honorary Ambassadorship for Applied Languages by the University of Ghent. In 2018, she received the title of Science Fellow by the VUB, University of Brussels and in 2021 the first Medal of Honor, awarded by the Science and Technology Group of KU Leuven.

External appointments 

• Chair of the Board of Directors, Melexis NV, Belgium
• Managing Director of Sensinnovat BV (Belgium) and non-executive Director of several of its non-listed portfolio companies
• Chair, Flemish STEM Platform, an independent advisory group to the government of Flanders
• Independent board member, Soitec S.A., France
• Independent board member of Mediafin, Belgium
• Independent board member of Antwerp Management School, Belgium
• Independent board member of SMART Photonics, The Netherlands

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since

26 April 2018

Member of the Sustainability Committee since

27 April 2023

Date appointed to Board 

26 April 2018

Education 

• Engineering – Ghent University, Belgium
• Management – Ghent University, Belgium
• Management – MIT Sloan School of Management, USA

Experience 

Prof. Dr. Ir. Koenraad Debackere has been with KU Leuven since 1995, where he teaches Technology & Innovation Management and Policy. He has won numerous awards for his research, and in 2010 was awarded a Francqui Lecture Chair in economics and business. From 2005 through September 2020 he was the general manager of KU Leuven and also a member of the Board of KU Leuven.

External appointments 

• Chair and independent director, chair of Nomination Committee, chair of Remuneration Committee, KBC Group NV, Belgium
• Member Board of Governors, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2027

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since

9 December 2020

Member of the Audit Committee since

26 April 2018

Date appointed to Board 

28 April 2015

Education 

• Economics – University of Melbourne, Australia 
• Applied Information Systems – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

Experience 

Mark Garrett built an extensive career in the oil, gas, petrochemical and chemical and materials industries. He served as Chair of OMV AG in Austria from 2020 until May 2023 and before that for four years as Chair of Axalta Coatings Systems in the USA. From 2018 until 2022 he was CEO of Marquard and Bahls AG and from 2007 until 2018 he was CEO of Borealis AG. Prior to that he worked for Ciba-Geigy and Dupont. Currently he focuses on his private family office and work in the PE field.

External appointments

• Independent Board Member, Orica Limited, Australia

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee since

29 July 2017

Member of the Audit Committee since

27 April 2023

Date appointed to Board 

27 April 2023

Education 

Master of Science in Business Engineering - Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, Belgium

Experience 

Marc Grynberg was Umicore's Chief Executive Officer from November 2008 to November 2021. During his CEO mandate, he positioned Umicore as a global leader in clean mobility materials and recycling. Marc joined Umicore in 1996, served as CFO of the company between 2000 and 2006 and headed the Automotive Catalysts business from 2006 to 2008. Prior to joining Umicore, Marc held several management positions at DuPont de Nemours in Brussels and Geneva.

External appointments

• Independent, non-executive director of Nexans, member of its Strategy & Sustainability Committee, Audit & Risk Committee and Climate Director.
• Independent, non-executive director of Wienerberger, member of its Innovation & Sustainability Committee, as well as of its Audit & Risk Committee.

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2026

Member of the Investment Committee since

27 April 2023

Member of the Audit Committee since

25 April 2024

Date appointed to Board 

28 April 2022 (effective 1 September 2022)

Education 

• Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
• Ph.D, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
• Alison Henwood holds qualifications with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Experience 

Alison Henwood is a highly experienced finance professional with a nearly 30-year executive career with Shell in various financial leadership positions in Europe and the US including the position of Executive Vice President Finance, Shell Trading and Supply.  She finished her executive career with Shell at the end of June 2022.  Since September 2021 she has been a Non Executive Director at Spectris plc, a global supplier of precision instrumentation, test equipment and software and a constituent of the FTSE 250.

External appointments

Board Member and Audit Committee Member, Spectris plc

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Audit Committee since

01 September 2022

Chairwoman of the Audit Committee since

27 April 2023

Member of the Sustainability Committee since

27 April 2023

Date appointed to Board 

25 April 2019

Education 

Commercial Engineering – Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, Belgium

Experience 

Laurent Raets joined Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) in 2006 and became Partner in 2021. He began his career in 2002 as an M&A consultant at Deloitte Corporate Finance, where he was involved in buy and sell mandates, due diligence and valuation assignments.

External appointments 

Member of the Board of Directors and of the Audit Committee of Imerys S.A., France

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2025

Member of the Audit Committee since

25 April 2019

Member of the Investment Committee since

27 April 2023

Date appointed to Board 

25 April 2024 (effective 1 November 2024) 

Education 

• Chemical engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium 
• Refinery engineering, French Petroleum Institute, France

Experience 

Philip Eykerman, a Belgian citizen, is president of the Health, Nutrition & Care division at DSM-Firmenich and member of its executive committee. Mr. Eykerman joined DSM in 2011 as executive vice-president corporate strategy and acquisitions. He later took on additional responsibilities, including for DSM’s food specialties and pharma activities. Before joining DSM, Mr. Eykerman was a partner at McKinsey & Company, and the leader of McKinsey’s chemicals practice in Benelux and France.

External appointments

Member of the Board of Directors (DSM representative) of AnQore and of DSM Andre Pectin

Expiration of mandate

Annual General Meeting of 2027