SEOUL, KOREA - Merck Korea, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, announced today that Dr. Michael Grund will take over as Managing Director of Merck in Korea, succeeding Juergen Koenig on July 1, 2013.
“Merck Group has demonstrated its willingness to foster the bio-pharmaceutical industry by acquiring Millipore. Merck will closely team up with Korean companies in the areas of chemistry and bio products,” Grund said in a press conference on Monday. He didn’t mention specific companies.
The Managing Director plans to step up efforts for Merck Korea to more closely cooperate with other branches in the European countries and the U.S. He added that the Korean affiliate will strengthen the partnership with the R&D center in the U.K.
Grund has shown interests in the display sector. Merck Korea will strengthen its cooperation with global display players such as Samsung and LG Display for OLED, he said. “The display platform of Merck has been LCD so far, but we have invested in alternative materials including OLED for the last five years. We are in the discussion with client companies for new technologies.” Last Wednesday, Mr. Grund met with the CEO of Samsung Display to discuss business cooperation.
Korea is the first country Merck has set up an OLED application laboratory other than its German headquarters. The laboratory was set up in 2011 to model on the German-based OLED lab.
Merck has been present in Korea since 1989 and belongs to the German Merck Group with its head office based in Darmstadt. Merck Korea has seen the success in the pharmaceutical and the chemical business for the past decades. It has worked on Liquid Crystals, Life Science products, as well as Analytics, Effect Pigments, and Cosmetics.
Dr. Michael Grund was awarded a doctorate in Chemical Engineering and began working at Merck in 1997. Before joining Merck in Korea, he was Vice President PM-Advanced Technologies Development (PM-AD).