BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals market, announced today that D. Michael Wilson has joined the company as senior vice president of Albemarle and president of Catalyst Solutions, effective October 1, 2013. In this role, Mr. Wilson will lead all aspects of Albemarle's Catalyst Solutions global business unit with responsibility for its financial performance and long-term strategy.

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Michael joins Albemarle after a successful career with FMC Corporation where he most recently served as president of the Specialty Chemicals Group.  At FMC, Michael held a number of executive roles, including leadership of the Industrial Chemicals Group and the Lithium division. Prior to joining FMC, Michael's career progressed through a variety of general management, sales and operational leadership roles with the Wausau Paper Corporation and Rexam, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In addition to his professional accomplishments, Michael is also an active civic leader.   

"I am extremely pleased to add an executive with Michael's breadth and depth to Albemarle's leadership team," commented Luke Kissam, Albemarle's chief executive officer.  "Michael's market-focused and customer-centric approach for expanding the catalyst business is perfectly aligned with our strategy.  He shares Albemarle's values, particularly related to customer and partner relationships, and this will enable us to be successful as we work to aggressively grow the catalyst business."  

About AlbemarleAlbemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010, 2011 and 2013.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,200 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Albemarle Corporation

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