Owlia steps down as Senior VP Polyurethanes, BMS, Asia Pacific

She took the opportunity to introduce her successor, Bernd Steinhilber. Steinhilber moves to Hong Kong to head the polyurethanes business unit from Films, where he was based in Leverkusen, Germany. Previously he has been involved with the CAS business, experience he shares with Dr Joachim Wolff, the new Head of the Polyurethanes Business Unit.

Dr. Owlia stated that she has no immediate career plans, but intends to remain in the region. "The Asia Pacific is a complex, dynamic market of very basic to highly sophisticated customers. To operate successfully here one needs to be fast and flexible, taking global trends and local issues and distilling them into something suitable for the local market. It is a challenge I enjoy."

Dr. Owlia joined Bayer in 1988 as a Senior Chemist at the Baytown facility and worked in Performance Products Division, and as Vice President of the Insulation Marketing Unit of Bayer Polymers Americas in Pittsburgh, heading the marketing and sales unit for appliance, rigid systems, wood and foundry core and lamination, as well as system houses development. She has been the Vice President of the Consumer Market group responsible for the development of annual and long-range plans and strategies for markets and products in the Plastics Division of Bayer Corporation, including the optical media, consumer and medical markets and the company's polycarbonate business.