Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley

Karl-Ludwig Kley, born in 1951, studied law in Munich from 1974 to 1979 – prior to that he had completed an industrial business apprenticeship at Siemens AG. After completing his practical training as a lawyer in Hamburg and Johannesburg, from 1982 he worked in Corporate Finance and as assistant to the Chairman of the Management Board at Bayer AG.  Parallel to that, in 1986 he received his doctorate from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.

After working abroad as Chief Financial Officer at Bayer in Japan from 1987 to 1991, he held a number of senior management positions in the Pharmaceutical division – in sales and marketing and, from 1994 to 1997, as Managing Director of the Italian subsidiary. Subsequently he was in charge of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at Bayer headquarters. In 1998, he joined the Executive Board of Lufthansa AG as Chief Financial Officer.

In September 2006, Karl-Ludwig Kley joined Merck as Vice Chairman of the Executive Board. At the end of April 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA and Member of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG.

External mandates:
Member of the Presidential Council of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI)
Member of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann AG
Member of the Supervisory Board of BMW AG