MINNETONKA, MN — The Board of Directors of NatureWorks has named Richard Altice the company’s new President and Chief Executive Officer, replacing Marc Verbruggen, who led the company from 2008 to his retirement in 2017.

Altice comes to NatureWorks from PolyOne Corp. where he was Senior Vice President and President – Designed Structures and Solutions. At PolyOne, he had global responsibility for the sheet, roll stock and formed packaging business. Prior to PolyOne, Altice served as Vice President of Hexion’s global specialty epoxy business focused on coatings and composites.

“We are pleased to welcome Rich as NatureWorks’ CEO. Rich is an exemplary leader. He brings broad experience and demonstrated success in international business, strategic marketing and building highly effective teams to serve customers in the polymer and chemical industry,” said Peter Hawthorne, Chairman of the Board. “We believe Rich’s leadership will advance market development and the adoption of NatureWorks’ performance materials in new applications.”

“Through my prior work experience, I became familiar with NatureWorks and thought very highly of the company and its products,” said Altice. “I believe that the NatureWorks culture, the company’s leadership, and the market interest in renewably sourced advanced polymers and chemicals presents an exciting opportunity and time to be a part of the NatureWorks journey. I feel fortunate to have been selected as the company’s new President and CEO.”

NatureWorks was the first company to offer commercially available low-carbon-footprint bioplastics derived from 100-percent annually renewable resources. Recently, NatureWorks reached the milestone of two billion pounds of Ingeo™ biopolymer sold globally via its comprehensive portfolio of 33 grades, which are converted into thousands of consumer and industrial products. In 2017, the company launched a performance chemicals business with the new Vercet™ platform for adhesives and coatings.