Grace Announces Management Re-Alignment

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- W. R. Grace & Co. (NYSE: GRA) announced today that Gregory E. Poling has been elected as Grace’s President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Poling previously served as President of Grace Davison, Grace’s largest operating segment. Fred Festa will remain Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“Since joining Grace eight years ago, my focus has been on turning Grace into a global, integrated operating company, One Grace, with common business practices and simple, global processes led by a highly engaged organization. We have made tremendous progress, as proven by our performance,” said Mr. Festa. “With his deep knowledge of Grace and his experience leading global businesses in both Grace Construction Products and Grace Davison, and his record of results, Greg is the best person to keep moving us forward. I look forward to continue working closely with Greg and the Grace Board of Directors, on our emergence from Chapter 11 and our future growth strategy.”

Poling joined Grace in 1977. He spent the first part of his career in Grace Construction Products eventually becoming Vice President and General Manager where he had global responsibility for sales, operations and technical services. He joined Grace Davison in 1999 and became its President in 2005.

“I am very excited about the opportunity that has been given to me by Fred and our Board of Directors,” said Poling. “I share Fred’s vision for Grace, and I look forward to working with him to leverage our progress over the last eight years and further engaging our Grace colleagues and customers to achieve our vision of being one of the world’s premier specialty chemical companies. I know our businesses well, and have great respect for our business leaders; this will be a seamless transition.”

In addition to Mr. Poling, reporting to Mr. Festa will be the General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Human Resources Officer. Reporting to Mr. Poling will be the business unit leaders, operations, and environment, health and safety.

Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and other products to petroleum refiners; catalysts for the manufacture of plastics; silica-based engineered and specialty materials for a wide range of industrial applications; sealants and coatings for food and beverage packaging, and specialty chemicals, additives and building materials for commercial and residential construction. Founded in 1854, Grace has operations in over 40 countries. For more information, visit Grace's web site at www.grace.com.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “suggests,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all statements regarding Grace’s Chapter 11 case; expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; budgets; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Like other businesses, Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: developments affecting Grace’s bankruptcy, proposed plan of reorganization and settlements with certain creditors, the cost and availability of raw materials (including rare earth) and energy, developments affecting Grace’s underfunded and unfunded pension obligations, risks related to foreign operations, especially in emerging regions, acquisitions and divestitures of assets and gains and losses from dispositions or impairments, the effectiveness of its research and development and growth investments, its legal and environmental proceedings, costs of compliance with environmental regulation and those factors set forth in Grace’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Grace’s projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.

W. R. Grace & Co.Media RelationsAndrea Greenan, +1 410-531-4391[email protected]orInvestor RelationsMark Sutherland, + 1 410-531-4590[email protected]

Source: W. R. Grace & Co.