Covestro has announced the death of Michel Baulé, an entrepreneur in the cast polyurethane industry. Baulé passed away on January 13, 2023.

"Our thoughts and condolences are with Michel’s family," said Thomas Braig, head of Elastomers at Covestro. "We will forever and fondly remember the entrepreneur, the exceptional man and our friend who was at the origin of Covestro Elastomers." 

Graduated with a Ph.D. in chemistry, the native of Cavaillon, France, embarked on entrepreneurship in 1976 at the age of 33 by creating a molding company for cast polyurethane parts in Romans-sur-Isère, France. He established a second business in 1983, specializing in the formulation of cast elastomers systems. Together with companions such as Philippe Jeantin, Antonio Alvarez, and Mauro Modugno, he then founded another business in 1987 that was dedicated to the design and manufacture of low pressure dispensing machines. 

It later divested its molding entity to its executives to become EXSTO, while Baulé, combining the material formulation and the machines manufacturing, successfully established a Joint Venture with the MaterialScience division of the Bayer company in 2008. In 2012, this turned into a merger, and Baulé’s former business became officially part of the Bayer group. In 2015, it became part of the carve out of Covestro from its parent company Bayer. Today, this business finds its heritage in the Elastomers Business Entity of Covestro, still headquartered in Romans-sur-Isère. 

"We pay tribute to genius that was Michel Baulé, for inspiring dozens of innovations in the cast polyurethane industry, among them the development of three-components systems with quasi-MDI-prepolymers and many innovative processing concepts that lead us to maintain and promote the brand Baulé® for our machine technology. He will be missed dearly,” said Abdel Arhzaf, managing director of Covestro Elastomers SAS. 

After a valuable contribution to the growth of the cast polyurethane industry, Baulé developed a family office called EXIMIUM which has maintained all its entrepreneurial culture through acquisitions and participations while developing financial activities and support services. Until his last days he remained very active and energetic in his entrepreneurial role.

For more information, visit: https://www.covestro.com/.