Leadership : Our Company : GE

Mr. Dekkers received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Radboud University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Eindhoven (Netherlands). He began his professional career in 1985 as a scientist at the corporate research center of General Electric in the United States, gaining experience in various units of the company before joining AlliedSignal (subsequently Honeywell International Inc.) in 1995. In 2000 Mr. Dekkers became chief operating officer of Thermo Electron Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of laboratory instruments (later renamed Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. following the acquisition of laboratory supplier Fisher Scientific). As of 2002, he served as that company's president and CEO. After 25 years of his career spent in the United States, he joined Bayer, a global healthcare, crop science and material science company, on January 1, 2010, first serving as interim CEO of Bayer Healthcare and since October 2010 has served as chairman of Bayer's management group. Mr. Dekkers is vice president of the German Chemical Industry Association, Frankfurt, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of German Industry, Berlin. He also served as a director at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. during the last five years.