BASF Coatings names Executive Committee to lead and drive success as a standalone company

MUENSTER, Germany, June 25, 2026. BASF Coatings today named the leadership team that will run the business as an independent company from July 1, 2026, after the closing of the transaction. The new structure brings together leaders who have built the coatings business over many years and senior executives with proven records in finance, digital and transformation. The Executive Committee will be led by incoming Chief Executive Officer Jens Luehring. 

“Great teams combine experience with new thinking, and this one does both,” said incoming CEO Jens Luehring. “Some of these leaders have spent their careers building this business over many years; others bring hard-won expertise from across the industry. Together they give us the continuity to keep serving our customers at the highest level and the strength to think bigger and move faster.”

Executive Committee appointments 

The Executive Committee sets the company’s strategic direction and drives business performance. Effective July 1, 2026, its members are: 

• Jens Luehring, CEO

• Michael Pontzen, CFO 

• Ewout van Jarwaarde, CTO 

• Frank Naber, EVP Surface Treatment 

• Patrick Zhao, EVP Mobility Coatings 

• Steve Arndt, EVP Refinish Coatings 

• Dr. Nils Lessmann, EVP Operations Mobility/Refinish 

Jens Luehring is an international business leader with over two decades of experience in corporate transformation, carve-outs, mergers & acquisitions, and finance. A German national based in the United States since 2012, he spent 18 years in the industrial and medical gases industry, including leading the carve-out and stand-up of legacy Linde’s Americas assets as an independent, private equity-backed company. As President & CEO, he led the business for seven years, driving improvements in financial performance, operational excellence, and growth. Jens has served in CEO and CFO roles for over a decade and began his career in investment banking. 

Michael Pontzen joins as Chief Financial Officer with more than 25 years in finance leadership and executive positions in the chemical industry. In the last three years, he was the CFO of Nobian, a chemical company owned by The Carlyle Group and GIC. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at LANXESS, where he served as CFO and earlier led controlling, corporate finance, and investor relations.   

Ewout van Jarwaarde joins as Chief Transformation Officer, bringing extensive experience in leading global businesses, delivering complex, large-scale transformations, and unlocking performance and value creation. Most recently, he served as CEO of Brenntag Essentials and a member of the Board of Management of Brenntag SE, a DAX 40 company. Prior to that, he led Brenntag’s global transformation as member of the Board of Management. Previously, under private-equity ownership, Ewout built and scaled CarNext.com into a leading pan-European used-car platform as CEO and member of LeasePlan’s Executive Leadership Team. Before that, he was a Partner at McKinsey & Company. 

Frank Naber leads Surface Treatment, with its trusted Chemetall brand, as Executive Vice President. He has been with BASF for more than two decades, holding leadership roles in coatings and surface treatment across Europe and Asia Pacific, most recently as Senior Vice President Global Surface Treatment and previously as SVP Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions EMEA.  

Patrick Zhao leads Mobility Coatings as Executive Vice President, with an established record of growing the Automotive OEM business especially in the Chinese OEM market and serving Automotive customers around the world. He has been with BASF since 1999, with a career spanning technology, marketing and business leadership across Asia Pacific, including SVP Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific before taking global responsibility for the OEM business. 

Steve Arndt joins as Executive Vice President Refinish Coatings with more than 30 years of automotive refinish industry experience spanning both manufacturing and distribution across North America and Europe. He spent six years at Axalta Coating Systems as Global Distribution Sales Director, responsible for distribution strategy across more than 140 countries. Before that, he served as President and COO of FinishMaster, the leading independent automotive refinish distributor in North America. 

Dr. Nils Lessmann becomes Executive Vice President Operations Mobility/Refinish, with major responsibility for production and supply chain for the businesses of Mobility and Refinish Coatings, and company-wide procurement. He joined BASF in 2009 and has held senior business, technical and operations roles across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas, most recently as SVP Global Operations Paints and Resin. 

Executive Leadership Team appointments 

The Executive Committee is supported by the company’s corporate functions, including digital and information, procurement, human resources, safety, sustainability and innovation as well as legal and communications.

David Johnston joins as Chief Digital and Information Officer with more than three decades of global IT leadership across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Most recently CIO at Messer Americas, he built a standalone IT organization following the company’s carve-out and led a multi-year technology transformation spanning cloud, data and analytics, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Earlier he held regional and global IT leadership roles at Linde and BOC Gases.

 
About BASF Coatings 

BASF Coatings is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings as well as applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries. We create advanced performance solutions and drive performance, design and new applications to meet our partners’ needs all over the world. We share skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, South America, Middle East, Africa, North America and Asia Pacific. In 2025, our businesses achieved global sales of about €3.7 billion.  

BASF Coatings – Driven by passion and science, we always go beyond the surface. For more information, visit www.basf-coatings.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

P-26-119