Ashland Global Holdings Inc. recently announced that its board of directors has elected Guillermo Novo chairman and CEO of Ashland, effective December 31, 2019. William A. Wulfsohn will continue to serve as chairman and CEO through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. Following Wulfsohn’s departure from Ashland, the board will be composed of 10 members, nine of whom are independent.

According to Ashland, Novo is an accomplished industry executive, bringing more than three decades of specialty materials experience to his role. From 2016-2019, he served as president and CEO of Versum Materials. He worked at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. from 2012-2016, most recently as executive vice president of Materials Technologies. Prior to joining Air Products and Chemicals, Novo worked at Dow Chemical Co., where he served as group vice president for Dow Coating Materials. Earlier in his career, he progressed through a variety of commercial, marketing, and management positions over the course of 24 years with Dow and Rohm and Haas. In May 2019, he was elected to the Ashland board.