Developments at Rohm and Haas

Rohm and Haas Company shareholders have elected Gary L Rogers to their board of directors at their annual meeting of shareholders, held in Philadelphia. Rogers was most recently vice-chairman of General Electric Company from 2001 until his retirement in December, 2003. Previously, he served as senior vice-president of General Electric Company and president and chief executive officer of GE Plastics from 1992 to 2001. Rogers was one of fourteen members of the board elected at the annual shareholders' meeting. John A McArthur, a director of the company since 1977, has reached the age of 70 and, in accordance with the company's corporate governance policies and guidelines, did not stand for re-election to the board. Gary Rogers brings to the Rohm and Haas Company board solid experience as a senior executive with one of the world's pre-eminent manufacturing companies. We look forward to his counsel and leadership', said Raj L Gupta, Rohm and Haas Company chairman and chief executive officer. 'I also want to express the appreciation of all Rohm and Haas Company's shareholders to John McArthur, for his thoughtful leadership and his wise counsel as a director for the past 26 years.' During his remarks before shareholders, Gupta also announced the company's plans to build a new research and technical centre in Shanghai, China, to be opened by the end of 2005. 'The facility will be state-of-the-art and support all our businesses', Gupta said. He further noted that it was just over 40 years ago that the company made a similar investment to advance their research and development capabilities by building their Spring House, Pennsylvania research complex. 'I expect this new research centre in China to become just as important in enhancing our innovation capabilities and driving new product development in the future', he said.