Kurt Bock: BASF CEO

Kurt Bock is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE. He was born in 1958 in Rahden, Eastern Westphalia, Germany. This is a small town with a population of 16,000 and where Kurt also grew up. Starting in 1977 he studied business administration at the Universities of Münster and Cologne and also at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Kurt received his diploma from the University of Cologne in 1982. He then completed a three-year research stint at Bonn University and received a doctorate in economics in 1985 for the said university.

  

He joined BASF through the Finance Division in 1985 and became Staff to Chief Financial Officer in 1987. Kurt was promoted in 1991 to Head of Technology, Planning and Controlling in the Engineering Plastics Division.

Kurt made a major decision and left BASF in 1992 to become Senior Vice President of Finance at Robert Bosch GmbH. He also did well there becoming Managing Director at Robert Bosch Ltda., Campinas, Brazil. BASF though was able to get him back in 1998 as Chief Financial Officer of its North American division. Kurt became the President of BASF’s Logistics and Information Services in 2000.

In 2003 he became a member of the Board of Executive Directors and the firm’s Chief Financial Officer and also 2007 onwards Chairman and CEO of BASF Corporation, New Jersey, United States.

In 2011 Kurt became the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE. He is responsible for Legal, Taxes & Insurance, Strategic Planning & Controlling, Communications & Government Relations, Global Executive Human Resources, Investor Relations and Compliance.

BASF is a chemical company and it is interesting to note that Kurt does not have a chemical or science background and his strength is in finance. Yet at BASF only 50 percent of board members are required to have chemistry credentials. They probably realized that having all managers and senior executives with chemistry backgrounds may make the company too narrowly focused.

Kurt has proven himself to be a capable CEO producing profits for BASF, one of the world’s leading chemicals companies, when analysts had other opinions.