Who Founded Bayer?

Baumann became CEO in May 2016 and retired at the end of May 2023 after 35 years at Bayer. His defining decision was the acquisition of Monsanto, completed on June 7, 2018 at USD 128 per share, about USD 63 billion in total. Within weeks of closing a California jury returned the first Roundup cancer verdict, and the litigation that followed cost Bayer billions and drove down its share price. Shareholders voted against ratifying his management in 2019, an unusual rebuke for a sitting German chief executive, and he stayed four more years until his planned retirement. The deal did give Bayer the largest seed and crop protection business by sales.

Dekkers was CEO from October 1, 2010 to April 30, 2016 and the first Bayer chief executive hired from outside the company. He narrowed Bayer to life sciences: in 2014 Bayer bought the consumer care business of Merck and Co. for USD 14.2 billion, adding Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholl's, and in 2015 it listed the materials science division as Covestro on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. He left before the Monsanto bid was launched.

Wenning led Bayer from April 2002 to September 30, 2010. He took over months after the worldwide withdrawal of the cholesterol drug Baycol and spent his early years settling the claims that followed. He completed the reorganization of Bayer into a management holding company with separate subgroups, and in 2006 acquired Schering AG for about $19.2 billion (EUR 17 billion) after counter-bidding against Merck KGaA, creating Bayer Schering Pharma and Bayer's largest deal until Monsanto. He also began the separation of the materials business later listed as Covestro. He chaired Bayer's supervisory board from 2012 to April 2020.