BASF appoints Andy Gutacker as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Geismar site

GEISMAR, LA, September 30, 2025 – BASF has appointed Andy Gutacker as Senior Vice President and General Manager of its Geismar, Louisiana site, effective October 1, 2025.

Gutacker will lead the operations across 32 plants at BASF’s Geismar Verbund site – the company’s largest manufacturing facility in North America. The site exemplifies BASF’s Verbund approach, which leverages interconnected production, energy efficiency, and resource optimization to drive innovation and competitiveness. He succeeds Jerry Lebold, who is supporting the transition and subsequently leaving the company on September 30.

Gutacker joined BASF in 2019 as Maintenance and Production Director at the Freeport, Texas site within the Petrochemicals division. In 2020, he was promoted to Vice President of Operations for Industrial Petrochemicals in North America. In 2023, Gutacker became Vice President of Investments and Engineering for BASF’s Battery Materials business in Mannheim, Germany. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Operations for the business in Europe and North America.

“Andy brings deep operational expertise and a strong track record of leadership across regions and technologies that make him the right leader for Geismar as we continue to strengthen our footprint in the United States,” said Heather Remley, President & CEO of BASF Corporation. “His focus on EHS, efficiency, innovation, and collaboration will help us unlock even greater value for BASF as we enable the green transformation of our customers.”

Prior to joining BASF, Gutacker held various leadership roles at Linde and Air Products across North America. He began his career at Air Products in 1998, and became Plant Manager in Orlando, Florida in 2004. He later managed a joint venture plant in Southern California and held various roles in Houston, including Production Superintendent and North American Pipeline Manager, where he developed a new organization and commissioned a hydrogen pipeline.

In 2016, he joined Linde as Southwest Area Supply Chain Manager and later became Head of Operations for industrial gas sites in the U.S. and Canada.

Gutacker now joins the BASF Geismar facility, which employs more than 2,000 people including contractors and has undergone more than $1 billion in new projects over the past decade. The site currently is in the final stages of its MDI 3 expansion, BASF’s largest wholly owned investment in North America.

Geismar manufactures a wide range of products including urethanes used in foam insulation, shoes, and furniture; chemical intermediates used in adhesives, coatings, plastics, water and gas treatment; and surfactants used in detergents.

Gutacker holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

About BASF

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 16,000 employees in North America and had sales of $19.7 billion in 2024. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.com/us.

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. Our ambition: We want to be the preferred chemical company to enable our customers’ green transformation. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Around 112,000 employees in the BASF Group contribute to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio comprises, as core businesses, the segments Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, and Nutrition & Care; our standalone businesses are bundled in the segments Surface Technologies and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of €65.3 billion in 2024. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the United States. Further information at www.basf.com.