Dr. Katja Scharpwinkel is Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE as well as Industrial Relations Director and Site Director of BASF’s largest Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Katja Scharpwinkel was born in 1969 in Hagen, Germany. She studied chemistry at Münster University and received her diploma in 1994, followed by her PhD in 1996. In 2010, she joined BASF following the acquisition of the former Cognis. Since then, she has successfully led various businesses. She headed, for instance the Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions business for Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), as well as BASF’s European distribution organization BTC Europe, which supplies products and solutions to medium-sized customers. She also led BASF’s Region EMEA. In 2024, she was appointed as a member of the Board of Executive Directors. She is responsible for the divisions European Site & Verbund Management; Global Engineering Services; Corporate Environmental Protection, Health, Safety & Quality; Region Europe, Middle East, Africa.
