Patrick W. Thomas

Born in 1957, Patrick W. Thomas holds a master's degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University. He began his career at ICI in England in 1979, holding several management positions. From 1989 to 1993, he was in charge of investment at ICI’s Polyurethane business located in Belgium before assuming responsibility for the Europe, Africa & Middle East region of the Polyurethanes business. In 1997, he was made Global CEO of ICI Polyurethanes. In 1999 Thomas was named President for Polyurethanes, Performance and Advanced Materials at U.S. chemical company Huntsman based in Belgium. Subsequently, he was President for Specialties at Huntsman International LLC and worked as a management consultant for private-equity companies in the industrial sector.

Between 2007 and 2015, he was CEO of Bayer Material-Science (the predecessor company of Covestro), before it was spun off from Bayer AG. Thomas was CEO of Covestro AG from 2015 until May 2018.

At the same time, he was a non-executive director at BG Group plc until 2016. He was a member of the audit committee and the remuneration committee of this multinational oil and gas company for a period of six years. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institute for Engineering and Technology. He is the founder of the World Plastics Council and a former board member of CEFIC (The European Chemical Industry Council), President of Plastics Europe and a board member of VCI (Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V.).