Ipsen announces the following executive transition plan for Ipsen India, which will become effective April 1, 2012. Subash Maggu will move to a supervisory position on the Ipsen India Board where he will support Ipsen India and assist Ipsen Group growth initiatives both inside and outside of India. Barbara Schulz, currently CEO of Ipsen Malaysia, will become the CEO of Ipsen India on April 1, 2012.

Maggu, as the leading influential figure in the early days of Ipsen's presence in India, has made a vast and lasting contribution to the company. He has played the key role from the very start in 1982 when the Wesman Group of Companies and Ipsen first started relations with a license agreement. In 1983 Maggu and his team won the very first order from an India customer - Bajaj Motors - which became the launching pad for years of growth. Maggu's prominent achievement of establishing a showcase manufacturing facility in 2004 for the production of Sealed Quench Furnaces in Kolkata is a testimony to his management skills and leadership.

Schulz comes with more than 20 years of experience as a marketing and sales executive for complex technical products in various industries across the globe. With a strong focus on Asia, her global background and knowledge of international markets is key to Ipsen as the company continues to increase its operations in India. Her leadership will contribute significantly to the organization's goal of developing the new Bangalore facility as a production hub as well as a center of competence for Ipsen's brazing and sintering technologies in Asia.

While announcing this transition plan, Ipsen Group Chairman Dr. Hendrik Grobler outlined an exciting future for Ipsen India which includes continued investments starting with a second India facility to open in Bangalore during Q2 2012. He also mentioned the importance of quick localized service, which will be enabled by actively expanding service capabilities throughout India during 2012. Grobler continued:

"India is vital to our global growth strategy. Ipsen is very proud to have the most successful and globally active companies here in India as business partners. We want to further contribute to their competitiveness by providing the most advanced and best engineered heat treatment equipment in the industry."