The board of directors of Clariant Ltd has appointed three key leadership positions, including naming Roland Loesser as new chairman and Jan Secher as new chief executive.

Mr. Loesser, Clariant’s current chief executive, will assume his new role following the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on April 7, 2006, taking over from the current chairman, Robert Raeber, who will reach the statutory retirement age at that time. Mr. Secher will join Clariant’s management board on January 1, 2006 and take over as chief executive after the AGM. Mr. Secher is a Swedish citizen and has a Masters degree in Industrial Marketing from the Linkoeping Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Professor Dieter Seebach will retire as member of the board of directors. The board will propose Dr. Peter Chen, chemistry professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich to replace Dr. Seebach. Dr. Chen, 45, is an expert in Physical Organic Chemistry and a US citizen.