Hans Van Bylen


Hans Van Bylen is a Belgian manager who has been serving as the CEO of Henkel from May 2016 to December 2019. He is married with 3 children.

Education

Hans Van Bylen studied business economics at the University of Antwerp and graduated with both a degree in business management and a Master of Business Administration. He also completed numerous executive development courses, e.g. at Harvard Business School. He is fluent in Dutch, English, German and French.

Career

Van Bylen joined Henkel in 1984 as Product Manager for detergents in Belgium. After several positions in marketing for detergents and cosmetics, he took over management responsibilities for various countries and regions. In 2005, he became member of Henkel’s management board and served as Executive Vice President for the Beauty Care business.
In May 2016 Van Bylen was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Henkel, succeeding Kasper Rorsted who joined adidas. Under his leadership, Henkel acquired the US based The Sun Products Corporation for 3.2 billion euros in June 2016. In November 2016, he presented the company’s new strategy After missing earnings expectations and twice lowering its full-year outlook, Van Bylen left by mutual agreement and was replaced with chief financial officer Carsten Knobel in 2019, a year before his contract was due to end.
Van Bylen served on several boards in the US and in Germany, and is now President of the German Chemical Industry Association

Other activities

Corporate boards

Van Bylen was awarded “CEO with the best image 2016 “ among Germany’s DAX CEOs by media analytics institute Unicepta