The change at the head of BASF Española will take place on October 1, 2025. Francesc Simó and Benjamin Hepfer will take over from Carles Navarro after nine and a half years in the position. Francesc Simó, director of the BASF production center in the Zona Franca of Barcelona since July 7; and Benjamin Hepfer, vice president and director of the BASF production center in La Canonja, Tarragona, since 2020, will divide the functions of the general management of the company in Spain. Hepfer will focus on the Tarragona production center, while Simó will be in charge of the rest of BASF's centers and activities in the country.
In addition, Francesc Simó will also be the new general manager of BASF Portuguesa S.A., a position held until this June by the Brazilian Renata Martins. Carles Navarro will continue to support the new general management during this transition. This change is part of the regional transition project that the company began with the definition of the new Winning Ways strategy, presented by the CEO of BASF, Markus Kamieth, in September 2024, and whose main ambition is to make BASF the chemical company preferred by customers to facilitate their green transition.
Francesc Simó holds a degree in chemical sciences from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona, an international MBA from EUNCENT and another in astronomy and astrophysics from the Universitat Internacional de Valencia. He has been linked to BASF for 27 years, where from 1998 to 2010 he held various positions in the Tarragona production center. In 2010 he began his international career, assuming various leadership roles in Germany and the United States. Until last June he was the general manager of BASF Grenzach GmbH, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. On July 7, he assumed the management of the Zona Franca (Barcelona) production center, a position he will combine with his new role as general manager of BASF Española SL.
Benjamin Hepfer is a chemical engineer from the University of Mannheim (Germany) and holds a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Koblenz (Germany). He joined BASF in 2003, at the Ludwigshafen headquarters, as a chemical engineer in the Corporate Engineering unit. He has held various management positions in Germany, Belgium, Finland and Brazil in which his responsibilities focused on the technical areas of BASF, supporting most of the operating divisions in major projects and maintenance services. Since May 2020 he has been vice president and head of the BASF production center in La Canonja, Tarragona, a position he will combine with his new role as general manager.