QIAGEN Announces New Management Roles
October 27 2003 - 4:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
QIAGEN Announces New Management Roles VENLO, Netherlands, Oct. 27
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq: QGENF; Frankfurt,
Prime Standard: QIA) today announced management changes and a new
management structure which will take effect January 1, 2004. The
new positions and structure are designed to provide continued
strong leadership to address QIAGEN's exciting opportunities in the
months and years ahead. Dr. Metin Colpan, 48, Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer, will transition his role to Senior
Technology Advisor to QIAGEN advising on technology projects. Dr.
Colpan, a co-founder, will also join QIAGEN's Supervisory Board.
Peer M. Schatz, 38, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer
for the past 11 years, has been nominated as QIAGEN's Chief
Executive Officer as well as Chairman of both the Management Board
and the newly created Executive Committee. The transition will take
place over the coming two-month period to ensure a smooth transfer
of responsibilities and continuity in all key areas of the
company's operations. QIAGEN also announced the formation of a new
Executive Committee, comprised of the Company's most senior
executives responsible for QIAGEN's core functions on a global
basis. The Committee, which will be led by Mr. Schatz, combines the
experience and competence of the team of the Company's most
seasoned executives who have been with QIAGEN for many years and
have been key contributors in building QIAGEN's current industry
leadership position. The Executive Committee will be the management
group which continues to chart QIAGEN's strategic and operational
direction. The members of the Executive Committee are: - Peer M.
Schatz (38), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer - Dr.
Joachim Schorr (43), Managing Director, Senior Vice President,
R&D - Bernd Uder (46), Managing Director, Senior Vice
President, Sales & Marketing - Roland Sackers (34), CFO, Deputy
Managing Director, Vice President, Finance - Dr. Michael Collasius
(41), Vice President, Instrumentation - Aeneas Marxen (43), Vice
President, Operations. - Dr. Uli Schriek (47), Vice President,
Business Development QIAGEN expects to appoint additional members
to the Executive Committee as new hires are finalized to fill the
open positions of Vice President of Molecular Diagnostics
Applications and Vice President of Corporate Strategy. Dr. Schorr
and Mr. Uder have also been nominated as members of QIAGEN's
Management Board and promoted to the positions of Senior Vice
President. Prior to these nominations, Dr.Colpan and Mr. Schatz had
jointly led the Company as members of the Managing Board. Mr.
Sackers, has been nominated to fill the position of Chief Financial
Officer and promoted to Deputy Managing Director. "As one of
QIAGEN's founders and a member of the current management team, I am
proud of our approximately 1,600 employees worldwide who have made
QIAGEN the leading company in our industry," said Dr. Colpan.
"Founders' roles evolve, and this is the right time for me to
transition from my current operational role. We have an
exceptionally talented team that will lead QIAGEN to even greater
success. I look forward to my continued involvement as Senior
Technology Advisor, as it will provide me the opportunity to return
to my roots and passion for science. Nucleic acid handling,
separation and purification have never been a more exciting field,
and I plan to help QIAGEN further leverage its unmatched technology
portfolio. I have the fullest confidence in Peer Schatz as QIAGEN's
new CEO. Peer has been my colleague, co- leader and friend during
the past 11 years, and his skills, talents and exceptional business
judgment in all areas of the Company's activities have been
valuable to me and highly instrumental to our success." "On behalf
of all of us at QIAGEN, I want to thank Metin for his strong vision
and leadership. We all look forward to our continued relationship
with him. I can assure our employees, customers, partners and
shareholders of our continued focused commitment to providing
advanced and innovative technologies for separation, purification
and handling of nucleic acids to the evolving life science
industry. Our drive for highest creativity and innovation, our
profound commitment to address our customers' needs, and our goal
of operational excellence are deeply rooted in our corporate
culture," said Mr. Schatz. "QIAGEN is a company where our common,
focused vision and our entrepreneurial spirit have always been
shared throughout the organization. We are very excited about our
new management structure and about having Metin join our Board of
Supervisory Directors," said Prof. Detlev Riesner, Chairman of the
Supervisory Board of QIAGEN NV. "QIAGEN is one of the best
positioned companies worldwide in Life Sciences and has a proven
and powerful engine of innovation that fuels exciting growth. The
introduction of an Executive Committee with Peer as its Chairman
and as our CEO is a very positive and natural evolution of a
rapidly expanding, thriving company." QIAGEN will host a conference
call on October 28th, 2003 at 9:30 am EST to discuss its third
quarter financial results and transition plans. The corresponding
presentation slides will be available 60 minutes ahead of the
conference call on the Company's website at
http://www.qiagen.com/goto/102803. A webcast of the conference call
will be available at http://www.videonewswire.com/QIAGEN/102803. In
addition QIAGEN will post statements of Dr. Colpan and Mr. Schatz
as well as an interview with the newly introduced Executive
Committee that can be followed on QIAGEN's website at
http://www.qiagen.com/. QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company
with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States, Japan, the United
Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Austria and
Canada, believes it is the world's leading provider of innovative
enabling technologies and products for the separation, purification
and handling of nucleic acids. The Company has developed a
comprehensive portfolio of more than 320 proprietary, consumable
products for nucleic acid separation, purification and handling,
nucleic acid amplification, as well as automated instrumentation,
synthetic nucleic acid products and related services. QIAGEN's
products are sold in more than 42 countries throughout the world to
academic research markets and to leading pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies. In addition, the Company is positioning
its products for sale into developing commercial markets, including
DNA sequencing and genomics, nucleic acid-based molecular
diagnostics, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy. QIAGEN
employs approximately 1,600 people worldwide. Further information
on QIAGEN can be found at http://www.qiagen.com/. Certain of the
statements contained in this news release may be considered
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent
that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's
products and markets and operating results are forward-looking,
such statements are based on current expectations that involve a
number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks
include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management
of growth and international operations (including the effects of
currency fluctuations and risks of dependency on logistics),
variability of operating results, the commercial development of the
DNA sequencing, genomics and synthetic nucleic acid-related
markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and
genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or
unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for
QIAGEN's, products (including seasonal fluctuations), difficulties
in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions
and producing such products, the ability of QIAGEN to identify and
develop new products and to differentiate its products from
competitors, and the integration of acquisitions of technologies
and businesses. For further information, refer to the discussion in
reports that QIAGEN has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). DATASOURCE: QIAGEN N.V. CONTACT: Peer M. Schatz,
Chief Financial Officer, +49-2103-29-11702, or , or Dr. Solveigh
Mahler, Investor Relations, +49-2103-29-11710, or , both of QIAGEN
N.V. Web site: http://www.qiagen.com/
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