AkzoNobel and Axalta appoint three non-executive directors to combined Board

Appointments

Stephan B. Tanda, Denise C. Johnson and Robert Schuchna have agreed to serve as non-executive directors of the combined company upon completion of the pending merger of equals between AkzoNobel and Axalta.

Board composition

On closing the combined company Board will be composed of Rakesh Sachdev (Chair), Ben Noteboom (Vice-Chair), Greg Poux-Guillaume (CEO), Chris Villavarayan (Deputy CEO), Jaska de Bakker, Jan Bertsch, Denise Johnson, Wouter Kolk, Robert Schuchna, Kevin Stein and Stephan Tanda.

Individual backgrounds

Denise C. Johnson is Group President at Caterpillar, responsible for Resource Industries, and serves on the board of ABB. Her background includes managerial roles at General Motors, including President and Managing Director of GM Brazil. She holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Michigan State and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration from MIT.

Robert Schuchna is a partner at Cevian Capital and has led investments across chemicals, consumer goods, industrials and pharma. He currently serves on the AkzoNobel Supervisory Board and the Board of Directors of Rexel, and holds a master’s in banking and finance from the University of Zurich.

Stephan B. Tanda is President and CEO of AptarGroup, which has announced his retirement as CEO on September 1, 2026. He led AptarGroup’s strategic transformation and previously served on the Executive Managing Board of Royal DSM NV for ten years, with earlier roles at DuPont and Freudenberg Nonwovens Group; he holds a degree in Plastics Engineering from the University of Leoben and an MBA from Wharton.

Governance

The appointments of the three additional non-executive directors are expected to be put forward for shareholder approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting later this year.