ZUG, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced that its shareholders have elected J. Kent Masters, 50, and Henri Philippe Reichstul, 62, to the company's board of directors. Masters was elected to serve a term expiring at the company's annual general meeting to be held in 2012. Reichstul was elected to serve a term expiring at the company’s annual general meeting to be held in 2014.
Masters became Chief Executive Officer of Foster Wheeler AG on October 1, 2011. Prior to joining the company, he served as a member of the Executive Board of Linde AG, a world-leading gases and engineering company, from 2006 to 2011. At Linde, Masters had responsibility for the Americas, Africa, the South Pacific, the global business unit Healthcare, and the business area Merchant and Packaged Gases. He was employed by BOC Group plc, a global industrial gas company that was publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, from 1984 until the acquisition of BOC by Linde in 2006. Masters served in roles of increasing responsibility at BOC, including as Chief Executive, Industrial and Special Products, from 2005 to 2006, and as President, Process Gas Solutions-Americas, from 2002 to 2005. He also served on the board of directors of BOC from 2005 to 2006. Masters has been a director of Rockwood Holdings, Inc., a global manufacturer of chemicals and advanced materials whose shares are publicly traded on the NYSE, since 2007, and serves on its Audit and Compensation Committees.
Reichstul is the founder and has been the Chief Executive Officer of G&R -- Gestão Empresarial, a consulting firm -- since 2003. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brenco (Companhia Brasileira de Energia Renovável), a Brazilian ethanol production company, from 2007 until 2010. He served as President of Globopar S.A., a leading Brazilian media company, from 2002 to 2003, and as Chief Executive Officer and President of Petrobrás (Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.), a Brazilian petroleum company, from 1999 to 2001. Reichstul served as Executive Vice President and a Partner of Banco Inter-American Express S.A., a private financial institution, from 1988 to 1999. Reichstul served in various government positions in Brazil from 1983 to 1987, including Secretary General of the Ministry of Planning. Reichstul currently serves as a member of the board of directors for Repsol YPF, S.A., an international oil and gas company, and PSA Peugeot Citroën, a publicly traded French automobile company.
Foster Wheeler AG is a global engineering and construction contractor and power equipment supplier delivering technically advanced, reliable facilities and equipment. The company employs approximately 12,000 talented professionals with specialized expertise dedicated to serving its clients through one of its two primary business groups. The company’s Global Engineering and Construction Group designs and constructs leading-edge processing facilities for the upstream oil and gas, LNG and gas-to-liquids, refining, chemicals and petrochemicals, power, mining and metals, environmental, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare industries. The company’s Global Power Group is a world leader in combustion and steam generation technology that designs, manufactures and erects steam generating and auxiliary equipment for power stations and industrial facilities and also provides a wide range of aftermarket services. The company is based in Zug, Switzerland, and its operational headquarters office is in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information about Foster Wheeler, please visit our Web site at www.fwc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Foster Wheeler AG news releases may contain forward-looking statements that are based on management’s assumptions, expectations and projections about the Company and the various industries within which the Company operates. These include statements regarding the Company’s expectations about revenues (including as expressed by its backlog), its liquidity, the outcome of litigation and legal proceedings and recoveries from customers for claims and the costs of current and future asbestos claims and the amount and timing of related insurance recoveries. Such forward-looking statements by their nature involve a degree of risk and uncertainty. The Company cautions that a variety of factors, including but not limited to the factors described in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the following, could cause the Company’s business conditions and results to differ materially from what is contained in forward-looking statements: benefits, effects or results of the Company’s redomestication or the relocation of our principal executive offices to Geneva, Switzerland; the benefits, effects or results of our strategic renewal initiative; further deterioration in global economic conditions, changes in investment by the oil and gas, oil refining, chemical/petrochemical and power generation industries, changes in the financial condition of its customers, changes in regulatory environments, changes in project design or schedules, contract cancellations, changes in estimates made by the Company of costs to complete projects, changes in trade, monetary and fiscal policies worldwide, compliance with laws and regulations relating to its global operations, currency fluctuations, war and/or terrorist attacks on facilities either owned by the Company or where equipment or services are or may be provided by the Company, interruptions to shipping lanes or other methods of transit, outcomes of pending and future litigation, including litigation regarding the Company’s liability for damages and insurance coverage for asbestos exposure, protection and validity of its patents and other intellectual property rights, increasing global competition, compliance with its debt covenants, recoverability of claims against its customers and others by the Company and claims by third parties against the Company, and changes in estimates used in its critical accounting policies. Other factors and assumptions not identified above were also involved in the formation of these forward-looking statements and the failure of such other assumptions to be realized, as well as other factors, may also cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Most of these factors are difficult to predict accurately and are generally beyond the Company’s control. You should consider the areas of risk described above in connection with any forward-looking statements that may be made by the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are advised, however, to consult any additional disclosures the Company makes in proxy statements, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, annual reports on Form 10-K and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.