Brendan Cummins, 62, former chief executive officer of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, was elected to the Ashland board in May 2012. Mr. Cummins, brings nearly 40 years of industry leadership experience to this new role. He spent 37 years with Ciba, holding a variety of international and senior management roles within the company. These roles included 20 years spent in the Asia Pacific region in finance and business unit leadership assignments. He served as chief operating officer from October 2005 through January 2008, when he was promoted to CEO. Ciba was acquired by BASF in late 2008. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Cummins served as a consultant to, and on the senior executive panel of, The Valence Group, a specialist mergers and acquisitions firm offering advisory services to companies and investors in the chemical, materials and related sectors.

William Dempsey joined Ashland's board in July 2016 and serves on the Audit Committee and the Environmental, Health, Safety and Quality committee. He previously served in various executive positions with Abbott Laboratories from 1982-2007, including executive vice president of global pharmaceuticals from 2006, senior vice president of pharmaceutical operations from 2003 and senior vice president of international operations from 1999. He currently serves as a director of Landauer Inc. (NYSE: LDR) and Hill-Rom Holdings (NYSE: HRC). He also served on the board of Hospira, Inc. through September 2015 and Nordion, Inc. through 2014.

Dr. Ihlenfeld was elected to the Ashland board of directors in January 2017. He formerly served as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, for 3M Company, a leader in technology and innovation from 2006 until his retirement in 2010.   He held various leadership positions during his 33-year career at 3M Company, including Senior Vice President, Research and Development from 2002 to 2006, Vice President of its Performance Materials business, and Executive Vice President of its Sumitomo/3M business in Japan. He is a director of Celanese Corporation, where he serves on the Compensation Committee and the Environmental, Health, Safety and Quality Committee.

Susan L. Main joined Ashland’s board in July 2017 and serves on the audit committee and the governance and nominating committee.  Ms. Main is senior vice president and chief financial officer of Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY), a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems, since November 2012. Prior to that, she was vice president and controller of Teledyne, a position she held for eight years. From 1999-2004, Ms. Main served as vice president and controller for Water Pik Technologies, Inc. She also held numerous financial roles at the former Allegheny Teledyne Incorporated in its government, industrial and commercial segments. Earlier in her career, Ms. Main held financial and auditing roles at the former Hughes Aircraft Company. She is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton.  

Barry Perry, 67, joined Ashland's board of directors in 2007. He is lead independent director, chair of the Compensation Committee and a member of the Governance & Nominating committee.

Mr. Perry served as chairman and chief executive officer of Engelhard Corp. from 2001 to 2006. Prior to this, he held various management positions with Engelhard beginning in 1993. He was a group vice president with Rhone-Poulenc from 1991 to 1993. Mr. Perry also held a number of executive positions during his 22 years with General Electric Co. He is also a director of Albemarle Corp. and Arrow Electronics Inc.

Mark Rohr, 62, joined Ashland's board of directors in 2008 and serves on the Audit and Environmental, Health, Safety and Quality committees.

Mr. Rohr is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Celanese Corp., a position he has held since April 2012. Prior to that, he served as executive chairman of Albemarle Corp. Previously, he held several executive positions with Albemarle, including chief executive officer, president and chief operating officer. Before joining Albemarle, he served with Occidental Chemical Corp. as senior vice president – specialty chemicals. Mr. Rohr also serves on the executive committee of the American Chemistry Council and the advisory board of Mississippi State University College of Arts and Sciences.

George Schaefer, 68, has been a director of Ashland since 2003 and serves as chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee.

Mr. Schaefer retired as chairman of the board of Fifth Third Bancorp in 2008, having previously served Fifth Third as chief executive officer, president and chief operating officer during his tenure. He is a director of Wellpoint Inc. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees of the University of Cincinnati Healthcare System.

Janice J. Teal, Ph.D., former group vice president and chief scientific officer for Avon Products Inc., was elected to the company’s board of directors in September 2012. Dr. Teal serves as chair of the Environmental, Health, Safety and Quality Committee and a member of the Compensation Committees. She brings 28 years of leadership and scientific research experience to Ashland’s board. Prior to her retirement from Avon in 2010, she led the company’s global research and development team of chemists and scientists, with responsibility for the development and support of Avon’s worldwide product lines. Before that, Dr. Teal served as vice president of the Avon Skin Care Laboratories, where she led the bioscience research and skin care teams that ultimately led to the growth of the Anew Skin Care brand to over $1 billion in sales. She had additional responsibility for development of Avon’s vitamin and nutritional lines. Dr. Teal joined Avon in 1982 as a program leader in toxicology and built Avon’s first pharmacokinetics and cell culture laboratories. She earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Emory University and served as a Research Fellow in toxicology at New York University. She previously served on the board of directors of Arch Chemicals, which was acquired last year by Lonza Group Ltd.

Michael Ward has been a director on Ashland's board since 2001. He is a member of the Compensation and Governance & Nominating committees.

Mr. Ward is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of CSX Corp., having previously served as president of the company's CSX Transportation rail unit. He is also a director of PNC Financial Services Group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, City Year and Take Stock in Children. His other affiliations include The Florida Council of 100, The Business Roundtable, the Hubbard House Foundation, Edward Waters College Foundation and Michael Ward Foundation


 

Kathleen Wilson-Thompson joined Ashland’s board in July 2017 and serves on the compensation committee and the environmental, health, safety and quality committee. She is executive vice president and global chief human resources officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA), the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination across the USA and Europe. Prior to this, she was senior vice president and chief human resources officer for Walgreens since 2010. Prior to her role at Walgreens, she held several positions of increasing responsibility in the operations and legal departments at Kellogg Company (NYSE: K). She left Kellogg as senior vice president of global human resources to join Walgreens. She also worked as vice president and staff counsel of litigation and banking law for Michigan National Corporation. Ms. Wilson-Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate and an LLM, master of laws in corporate and finance law from Wayne State University. She has served as a director of Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC), a producer of construction aggregates, since 2009.