17 April 2019

OCI N.V. Nominates Three New Directors to its Board

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OCI N.V. (Euronext: OCI) announced today that its Non-Executive Board of Directors will propose the appointment of Mr. Dod Fraser and Mr. David Welch as independent non-executive members and Ms. Maud de Vries as executive member of the Board of Directors to the next general meeting of shareholders (AGM) to be held on 29 May 2019.

Michael Bennett, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OCI N.V. commented: “We are delighted to nominate three outstanding and highly accomplished new members to our Board of Directors. Each of these individuals brings a unique skillset and wealth of expertise, ranging from financial and international affairs to sector knowledge and governance, all of which are of great importance to OCI. We are excited that Maud, Dod and David strengthen and diversify our Board as we continue to execute our strategy of growth and deleveraging, creating value for our shareholders.”

Pending all necessary approvals at the upcoming AGM, OCI N.V.’s Board of Directors will increase from 9 to 12 members, of which 8 are independent directors of a diverse background. The Board will comprise of independent non-executive chairman Michael Bennett, executive directors Nassef Sawiris, Hassan Badrawi and Maud de Vries, non-executive director Jérôme Guiraud, and independent non-executive directors Dod Fraser, Gregory Heckman, Robert Jan van de Kraats, Anja Montijn, Sipko Schat, David Welch and Jan Ter Wisch.

Biographies

Maud de Vries, a Dutch citizen, serves as the group’s General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and HR. Maud joined OCI N.V. in 2014 and has held several leadership positions including General Counsel, HR Director, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer. Since joining OCI, she has led several initiatives bolstering the group’s legal, compliance, governance and HR frameworks, and performs an integral role in the execution of strategic initiatives. Prior to joining OCI, she held the positions of General Counsel / Senior Executive at Corio N.V, leading the Legal, Compliance and Risk Management functions. During her tenure at Corio, she was a member of the management board of Reluxco International S.A, a wholly owned Corio subsidiary and a financial institution in Luxembourg under CSSF supervision. She started her career as an attorney at law at Dutch law firm Trenité Van Doorne. Maud has a law degree from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and was admitted to the Bar in 1997. She also attended INSEAD where she completed the Strategy Execution Programme.

Dod Fraser, a US citizen, is currently President of consulting firm Sackett Partners and was until its delisting in 2018 a member of the board of OCI Partners LLC, now a 100% subsidiary of OCI N.V. During his 27-year career in investment banking, Dod served as Managing Director and Group Executive of the Global Oil and Gas Group of Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase & Co.) from 1995 until 2000, and held various positions of increasing responsibility with Lazard Freres & Co., most recently as General Partner, from 1978 to 1995. Mr. Fraser is a director of two public companies: he has been a member of the board of Subsea 7 S.A. since 2009 and of Rayonier Inc. since 2014. He has also been a member of the board of Fleet Topco Ltd., the private holding company of Argus Media Ltd., since 2016. He previously also served on the boards of Smith International, Inc., Terra Industries Inc., and Forest Oil Corporation. Mr. Fraser holds a degree from Princeton University.

David Welch, a US citizen, recently retired as President for International and Government Affairs at Bechtel, a global engineering and construction firm, where he spent 10 years (2009-2019). Prior to that, Ambassador Welch served 32 years with the U.S. Foreign Service. He was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to senior positions in successive Democrat and Republican administrations: amongst other roles, David was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (2005-2008), the senior-most U.S. diplomat for the region, and served as Ambassador to Egypt (2001–2005), Assistant Secretary for International Organizations (1998–2001), acting Chief of Mission in Saudi Arabia (1992-1994) and on the National Security Council staff at the White House (1989-1991). In 2008, he attained the lifetime rank of Career Ambassador, one of only about 60 American diplomats to achieve this designation in its history. He was a board member of the U.S.-Saudi, the U.S.-U.A.E. and the U.S.-Egypt Business Councils, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

This press release contains inside information as meant in clause 7(1) of the Market Abuse Regulation.

 

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