Seifi Ghasemi became chairman, president and chief executive officer of Air Products in July 2014. In this role, he is focused on setting the strategy and policies of the company, developing leadership, and meeting shareholder commitments. Previous to this appointment, Mr. Ghasemi was an independent member of the company’s board of directors for 10 months.
Prior to joining Air Products, from 2001-2014, Mr. Ghasemi served as chairman and chief executive officer of Rockwood Holdings, a global leader in inorganic specialty chemicals and advanced materials that was acquired by Albemarle Corporation in January 2015. From 1997-2001, he held leadership roles at GKN, a global industrial company, including positions as director of the Main Board of GKN, plc, and chairman and chief executive officer of GKN Sinter Metals, Inc. and Hoeganes Corporation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ghasemi spent nearly 20 years with The BOC Group (the industrial gas company which is now part of Linde AG) in positions including director of the Main Board of BOC Group, plc; president of BOC Gases Americas; and chairman and chief executive officer of BOC Process Plants, Ltd. and Cryostar.
Mr. Ghasemi earned his undergraduate degree from Abadan Institute of Technology and holds an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is an international corporation whose principal business is selling gases and chemicals for industrial uses. Air Products' headquarters is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. Air Products is the Lehigh Valley's third largest employer, after Lehigh Valley Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital. Leonard P. Pool founded the company in 1940. Its French subsidiary, headquartered in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, was the site of a terrorist attack on June 26, 2015 at 10:00 AM.[4]
