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Change in TEGEWA Management

The TEGEWA office in Frankfurt will be headed by Mr Ralf Kattanek as of 1 July 2023.

Dr Alex Föller, who has been General Secretary since 2001, is thus handing over to an industry expert who – once active in the Association as a representative of a member company himself – is very familiar with both the Association’s workflows and the needs and necessities of companies in the chemical industry.

When Dr Föller took over the management of the association in 2001, it coincided with the publication of the White Paper “Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy” – the birth of today’s European chemicals legislation REACH.

Advocating for science-based and viable legislation thus became one of the main tasks of the new TEGEWA Managing Director.

In a way, handing over to his successor at a time when the current REACH text is being revised closes the circle:

Ralf Kattanek looks back on many years of experience in the textile industry. He started his career in fine chemicals and then in the textile dye division of BASF AG. When this division was sold, he joined DyStar to lead the textile business in the EMEA region. Mr Kattanek gained international experience as Managing Director for DyStar in Turkey and for CHT in Switzerland. Most recently, he served as CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) for the CHT Group, having spent many years building and leading the global textile chemicals business.

For many years, Mr Kattanek supported TEGEWA’s activities both in the Working Group Textile Auxiliaries and Dyes and on the TEGEWA Board of Directors and played a key significant role in their further development. As a result, he got to know the processes and the team very well.

“I am looking forward to the new task, which offers great challenges with, among other things, the further development of the Strategy, internationalisation and the implementation of the European Union’s Green Deal. I can rely on a very experienced team with a high level of expertise. Furthermore, I am very pleased that Dr Alex Föller will continue to support the association for a while yet with his many years of know-how, e.g., on technical issues in the field of surfactants.”

TEGEWA association is a trade association of the German chemical industry. It represents the interests of currently 104 member companies that produce chemicals for industrial use. These include, for example, products for the manufacture of paper, textiles or leather goods, but also raw materials for the cosmetics and detergent industry.

CESIO Lifetime Award for Dr Föller

CESIO Lifetime Award for Dr Föller

At the closing ceremony of the 12th CESIO World Surfactant Congress in Rome, Dr. Föller, who has been instrumental in shaping the content and organisation of the CESIO Congress for many years, was presented with the CESIO Lifetime Award.

In his laudatory speech, CESIO President Tony Gough (Innospec) highlighted Dr Föller’s extensive knowledge of surfactants from a technical, commercial and regulatory perspective.

On the CESIO Executive Committee, he represented TEGEWA’s interests as a national association. The list of CESIO congresses in which he participated in the organising and programme committees is impressive: Florence 2000, Berlin 2004, Paris 2008, Vienna 2011, Barcelona 2013, Istanbul 2015, Munich 2019. This year’s congress in Rome was the second one he shaped as chair of the programme committee – and also the last one he actively contributed to.

The Lifetime Award was the big final of 23 years of CESIO Congress.

REACH revision delayed: no all-clear just yet

Frankfurt, 20/11/2022

The timetable in the European Commission’s work programme for 2023, according to which the REACH revision will not start at the end of 2022 as previously indicated, is welcomed as an important step in the right direction. The companies represented by TEGEWA – many of which are small and medium-sized enterprises – are heavily affected by the REACH revision and see parts of the currently circulating proposals as existential threats. In addition, as part of an energy intensive sector, TEGEWA member companies are massively experiencing the implications of the current economic and political crisis. Therefore, the original – very tight and ambitious – timetable was considered unsuitable by the industry.                                                 

The work programme mentions a “targeted revision”, instead of the fully comprehensive reform originally envisaged, and indicates the revision for the fourth quarter of 2023. Even though the rescheduling of a few months can only be seen as a small step: with less time pressure and, associated with this, more diligence in drafting, we see the chance that the revision of the REACH Regulation will be approached with a sense of proportion and reason. The EU-REACH legislation in its current form continues to set the strictest global requirements and represents the highest standard for chemical safety worldwide. With its risk-based approach, the regulation is science-based and fact-driven, while providing maximum level of consumer, occupational and environmental protection. On behalf of its members, TEGEWA hopes for a targeted and evidence-based revision – to support the future viability of our and many other industries in Germany and Europe.