USA- ADM announced the appointment of Dr. Ellen de Brabander as its new director following ADM’s election of board members held during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on 4th May.
ADM had nominated the Elanco executive vice president for innovation and regulatory affairs earlier this year, awaiting the recently held elections.
According to the company, de Brabander brings a broad scientific background and deep R&D and innovation experience in human nutrition, life sciences, and animal health to the board.
As the executive vice president for innovation and regulatory affairs at Elanco, Brabander focused on driving early and late-stage pipeline execution across pet health and farm animals, including nutritional health solutions.
She was previously the senior vice president for research and development at PepsiCo, handling the company’s food safety, quality, regulatory, and digital transformation in R&D.
In addition, de Brabander held executive leadership positions in Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck Animal Health, and DSM.
“Our board’s leadership has been critical to our portfolio transformation, and with the addition of Ellen de Brabander, we’re adding new expertise to help power our growth,” said Juan Luciano, CEO of ADM, when de Brabander was nominated.
De Brabander holds a doctorate in bio-organic chemistry from Leiden University in The Netherlands, having completed post-doctoral work in molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She has also co-authored more than 60 publications in scientific journals, holds 18 patents, and has received multiple awards for her research, including the Golden Medal from the Royal Dutch Chemical Society in 2000 for Best Chemist under 40.
Dr. Ellen was also a founding board member of the European Institute of Technology and founding CEO of EIT Food, the largest public-private partnership in the food sector.
Incumbent directors re-elected were Juan Luciano, Michael S. Burke, Theodore Colbert, James C. Collins Jr., Terrell K. Crews, Suzan F. Harrison, Patrick J. Moore, Debra A. Sandler, Lei Z. Schlitz, and Kelvin R. Westbrook.
As previously announced, Donald Felsinger, the lead director, retired from the board, having reached the retirement age of 75. Francisco Sanchez, a board member since 2014, did not stand for re-election.
During the meeting, ADM’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of 45.0 cents per share on the company’s common stock, payable on June 7, 2023, to shareholders of record on May 17, 2023.
This dividend marks ADM’s 366th consecutive quarterly payment, a record of more than 91 years of uninterrupted dividends.
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