Committees at a Glance

Brendan Cummins, former chief executive officer of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, was elected to the Ashland board in May 2012. Mr. Cummins, 61, 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. Since 2010, Mr. Cummins has 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.

Stephen Kirk, 63, was elected to the Ashland board in November 2013 and serves on the Audit and Governance and Nominating committees. Mr. Kirk brings 40 years of global chemical industry experience to Ashland's board. He served as chief operating officer of Lubrizol from 2008 until his retirement in late 2011 following the company's acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway. Prior to that, Mr. Kirk served as corporate senior vice president and president of Lubrizol Additives, from 2004 to 2008. From 1996 through 2004, he held senior roles in sales and marketing. Mr. Kirk currently serves as Executive in Residence at the Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State University and as chairman of the Cleveland State University Foundation Board and a member of the Cleveland State University board of trustees.

Chairman of the board and chief executive officer since 2002, Jim O'Brien, 58, has presided over the transformation of Ashland from a multi-industry petroleum refiner and marketer with holdings in chemicals and transportation construction into a global specialty chemical company. With Ashland for more than 30 years, he has a wealth of experience from corporate and operations management to chemical and motor oil sales and marketing.

He is a director of Humana Inc. and Albemarle Corporation. He also is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the Fisher Graduate College of Business at The Ohio State University and a member of the board of directors of the American Chemistry Council.

Mark Rohr, 61, joined Ashland's board of directors in 2008 and serves on the Audit and Environmental Health, Safety & Product Compliance 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.

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 on the Environmental, Health, Safety, & Products Compliance and Personnel & 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. In addition to serving on the Ashland board, she is a trustee of Dominican College.

Michael Ward, 62, has been a director on Ashland's board since 2001. He is a member of the Personnel & Compensation and Governance & Nominating committees.

Mr. Ward is the chairman, president 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 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 and Kim Ward Foundation