In this podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Peter Behncke sits down with Michael Pontzen, the CFO of German chemicals company Lanxess, to discuss the challenges of the last few years, what lessons Pontzen learned from them, and how he plans to help Lanxess meet the continuing challenges of climate change, the war in Ukraine, and economic uncertainty. Lanxess aspires to be climate-neutral by 2040, and Pontzen shares how this will impact the organization’s workforce and how he is preparing the finance department for the energy transition. He also shares what leadership skills CFOs should develop in order to meet the challenges ahead and discusses what makes the CFO role such good experience for future CEOs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.