Robert Yates has been appointed president of EMD Millipore, a division of Merck KGaA. Mr. Yates will be responsible for the Chemicals business sector, which includes EMD Millipore and Performance Materials. He reports to Bernd Reckmann, a member of the executive board of Merck who has led the division since the acquisition of Millipore in July 2010.

“With the successful acquisition and integration of Millipore we have established a world-class partner for the Life Sciences industry,” said Mr. Reckmann. “Now we are entering the next phase of our growth plan focused on delivering value to our customers by driving our pioneering innovation agenda, further penetrating new and established markets and optimizing our infrastructure. To fully focus on these activities we decided to appoint a dedicated president of the EMD Millipore division.”

Mr. Yates joins the company from the diagnostics division of Roche, where he led the Life Science business in Penzberg, Germany and served as a member of the Diagnostics Executive Committee. He has held a range of global executive positions at Roche during the past 22 years and has a strong background in integrating global businesses, building performance cultures and driving strategic business value.