Coatings World staff06.24.20
Andreas Fischer has been named Evonik's new chief innovation officer, effective July 1.
He takes over from Ulrich Küsthardt, who has held this position since 2015 and is now taking early retirement.
Fischer plans to further strengthen the link between innovative capability and customer focus, and make it an unmistakable hallmark of Evonik.
“We want to be leading in innovation. To achieve that, we are bundling our competencies, and bringing together our scientific expertise and our proximity to our markets and customers so we can come up with solutions and applications faster," he said.
Beginning in 1997, Fischer held a number of positions at Evonik's predecessor companies, initially in sales and subsequently as head of various business entities. Starting in 2012 he was head of the Silica business line. Since 2019, he has been a member of the board of management of Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH.
Fischer wants to manage the innovation activities in a focused manner, without centralizing them.
Innovation growth fields with focused leadership remain the core of this approach. Here, he is building on the successful strategy of his predecessor.
Küsthardt concentrated in particular on six innovation growth fields. By 2025, Evonik plans to generate additional sales of over €1 billion with products and solutions in the fields of Sustainable Nutrition, Healthcare Solutions, Advanced Food Ingredients, Membranes, Cosmetic Solutions, and Additive Manufacturing.
“I want to make the benefits of research and development visible in Evonik's business performance,” said Fischer.
To achieve that, he also wants to drive forward and strengthen Creavis as Evonik's strategic innovation unit.
“Creavis should become Evonik’s business incubator. Working in close cooperation with our operating units, through Creavis, we want to gain access to new markets," he added.
