BATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation, a leader in the global specialty chemicals market, recently announced that Darian K. Rich has been named Vice President, Human Resources, effective immediately. Mr. Rich replaces Jack P. Harsh, who is retiring from the company. In his new role, Mr. Rich will oversee all aspects of Albemarle's talent management and performance based compensation strategies. He will work to enhance Albemarle's human resource ("HR") management systems and drive increased process automation to further align the company with competitive HR benchmarks.
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With nearly twenty-five years of experience, Mr. Rich has a diverse background in the global beverage, mining and automotive markets. He has worked in a broad range of human resource disciplines, including labor relations, talent management, compensation, and HR strategic planning. Mr. Rich has expertise in developing employee programs around merger and acquisition activities and has spent a significant portion of his career working in many different geographic locations and cultures, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Darian joins our team with an impressive background in global organizational management and development in a broad range of industries," said Mark C. Rohr, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Albemarle. "His extensive background in international manufacturing environments, human resource development and process management will be a tremendous asset as we continue to position Albemarle as the best-in-class employer in our industry."
Mr. Rich joins Albemarle after twelve years with Coca-Cola where he held several positions in the U.S. and Asia in both line management and corporate operations. Most recently, Mr. Rich served as vice president of Coca-Cola's International Human Resource Services. In this role, he developed international human resources strategy for all of the division's business units outside of North America. Prior to this role, he served for over six years in the Asia-Pacific region in a variety of roles including group human resources director for Asia, Eurasia and the Middle East.
Prior to joining Coca-Cola, Mr. Rich served as director of human resources for Magma Copper Mining Company in Arizona and prior to this position he worked for several years at General Motors Corporation as a senior labor relations representative.
About Albemarle Corporation
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; and construction and packaging materials. The Company operates in three business segments -- Polymer Additives, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals -- and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Learn more about Albemarle at: http://www.albemarle.com/.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form
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