Markin Dykes

Malkin Dykes was appointed as the Chairman of the Unilever Board of Directors in 2016. Previously, he served as the CEO of Bayer, a global chemical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare company, from 2010 to 2016. During his tenure at Bayer, Dykes spun off the company's Materials Science department, which produces plastics. In 2014, he planned Bayer's acquisition of Merck's healthcare consumer goods business for $14.2 billion. Born in the Netherlands, Dykes became famous in Bayer for changing his conservative corporate culture. Dykes' career began at General Electric, where he served as a research scientist. In 1995, he joined Allied Signal, an American telecommunications company, and later joined Honeywell International, taking over multiple business departments. In 2000, he became the Chief Operating Officer of Boston based Thermo Electronics, one of the world's leading laboratory instrument manufacturing experts. In a short period of time, Markin Dykes implemented a comprehensive corporate restructuring and became President and CEO in 2002. During this period, he took further extensive restructuring measures and strengthened the company's core business through targeted acquisitions. At the same time, Markin Dykes is also a board member of General Electric.