MILAN—Pirelli & C. S.p.A.'s board of directors has nominated China National Chemical Corp. Chairman Ren Jianxin to be chairman of Pirelli, succeeding Marco Tronchetti Provera, who has resigned in the wake of ChemChina's acquisition of majority control of Pirelli.
The board also nominated a slate of new board members, including Jianxin, to succeed five board members who resigned, effective Oct. 19.
Ren, 57 and chairman of ChemChina since December 2014, said he sees “great perspectives for growth on the horizon” for Pirelli, which he said “represents and will continue to represent Italian technological excellence throughout the world.” He also noted he shares with Tronchetti Provera a “passion for work and a desire to make Pirelli grow even more.”
In turn, Tronchetti Provera, who continues as executive vice chairman, noted that ChemChina offers “new opportunities for growth and development thanks to our complementary geographic footprints and the synergies that we will achieve in the industrial segment.”
The outgoing chairman also noted that aligning with ChemChina “offers new perspectives of growth above all in Asia and in particular China, markets of great strategic importance for Pirelli.”
Also nominated for the board are:
• Yang Xingqiang, vice president of ChemChina since January 2009 and before that vice president of China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd. from 2001-04;
• Zhang Junfang, a professor at Swinburne University of Technology; and
• Wang Dan and Tao Haisu, for whom no biographical information was provided.
They replace Anna Maria Artoni, Didier Casimiro, Ivan Glasenberg, Petr Lazarev and Igor Soglaev, Pirelli said.
Other board members are: BaiXinping; Ze'ev Goldberg; Andrey Kostin; Elisabetta Magistretti; Paolo Pietrogrande; Alberto Pirelli; Luigi Roth; Igor Sechin; and Manuela Soffientini.