NatureWorks LLC announces management change: Kathleen Bader retires, Dennis McGrew named new president and CEO

Dennis McGrew will become the new president and chief executive officer of NatureWorks LLC, a wholly owned business unit of Cargill, effective Jan. 20, 2006. NatureWorks is the first company to offer a family of commercially available polymers derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources. McGrew replaces Kathleen Bader, president, CEO and chairman of the business unit from 2004 to 2006, who has announced her retirement as part of a planned management transition.

“Kathleen has done an outstanding job running this business including the realigning and refocusing of the NatureWorks organization,” commented Guillaume Bastiaens, Vice Chairman of Cargill. “We gave Kathleen the responsibility of moving the company -- technology, manufacturing and commercial -- in a new direction and she succeeded. We thank her for her energy and dedication to the people and the business.”

In 2004, Bader was brought in to move the company from a research-based organization to a commercial business. During her tenure the company has posted triple digit sales growth, highlighted with the announcement in October of 2005 that Wal-Mart will transition 114 million fresh produce grocery packages to NatureWorks® PLA in the coming year. Other major adoptions have included retailers such as Auchan in France, Del Haize in Belgium as well as water bottle launches in North America, Europe and a growing development of non-woven applications. Prior to serving as NatureWorks LLC CEO Bader was business group president for The Dow Chemical Company’s global $4 billion Styrenics and Engineered Products.

“I have enjoyed every moment of my time at NatureWorks,” said Bader. “It has been a privilege to be able to lead this outstanding group of people through the transformation from a research project to a commercial reality. We have seen a step change in adoption in the marketplace among global companies concerned with both the environment and their own bottom line. As the company moves into the next phase of its expansion I am confident it will prosper under Dennis’s leadership.”

Dennis McGrew comes to the president and CEO position from his role as vice president and chief marketing officer leading the commercial team efforts since he joined the company in April of 2004. McGrew was responsible for directing global commercial efforts for NatureWorks® PLA packaging and Ingeo™ fibers, as environmentally beneficial replacements for petroleum-based materials.

McGrew has more than two decades of sales, marketing and business development experience. He served as global commercial director for the Engineering Plastics business of The Dow Chemical Company. McGrew holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo.).

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