Changes in the advisory board of the 5-HT Digital Hub Chemistry and Health

Elvermann takes over as Advisory Board Chair / Mucic hands over after five years / SAP and BASF reaffirm their commitment and appoint new Advisory Board members

Ludwigshafen, 3.3.2023 - The previous Chairman of the Advisory Board Luka Mucic, Chief Financial Officer at SAP SE, as well as Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Digital Officer at BASF SE, are leaving the Advisory Board and the Shareholders' Meeting of Digital Hub Rhein-Neckar GmbH as representatives of their companies. The Digital Hub Rhein-Neckar GmbH is the supporting company of the internationally active 5-HT Digital Hub Chemistry & Health. Mucic and Engel were already actively involved before the founding, Mucic in particular in his function as chairman of the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar e.V. association. Since the founding of the hub almost five years ago, both have been active in the company's committees and have played a significant role in the establishment and development of the hub.

The Managing Directors of the Hub, Stefan Kohl and Dr Frank Funke, thank them both for their dedicated contribution to the success of the Hub and wish them all the best and good health for the future. At the same time, they welcome the two new members of the Advisory Board: Dr. Dirk Elvermann, future Chief Financial Officer and Chief Digital Officer of BASF SE, who takes over the chairmanship of the Advisory Board from Luka Mucic, and Sabine Bendiek, Chief People & Operating Officer and Labour Director at SAP SE, as a new member of the Advisory Board.

Luka Mucic: "Today I am passing the baton as Advisory Board Chair of the 5-HT Digital Hub for Chemistry and Health to Dr. Dirk Elvermann from BASF and my seat as Advisory Board Member to Sabine Bendiek from SAP. From now on, they will actively accompany the fortunes of the team around Stefan Kohl and Dr Frank Funke. It has been a pleasure for me to see how the 5-HT Digital Hub has created a lively and strong base with more and more partners since its foundation almost five years ago. I thank my previous advisory board colleagues for their contribution to the success of 5-HT. I wish my successors every success in continuing the very positive development of the Hub so far."

Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel: "Promoting digital innovation in the chemical industry is of strategic importance to BASF. The 5-HT Digital Hub offers a valuable platform for BASF and other Hub users to connect with partners from industry, research and education as well as startups. It has been a great pleasure to accompany the positive development of the Hub as an advisory board member and to help drive value-creating digital and sustainable innovations with the advisory board. My heartfelt thanks go to Luka Mucic for his dedicated leadership of the advisory board and the 5-HT team around Dr Frank Funke and Stefan Kohl for their great work over the last five years. I wish Dr Dirk Elvermann, who will now represent BASF on the 5-HT Advisory Board and take over its chairmanship, all the best for this exciting task."

Dr. Dirk Elvermann: "Since its founding almost five years ago, 5-HT has created an impressive network with over 500 startups, corporates, research and academia as well as investors. It has initiated numerous projects and cooperations that make a visible contribution to further development in the chemical and health sectors. I would like to sincerely thank the Advisory Board Chairman Luka Mucic, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Engel and the Advisory Board colleagues, and especially the 5-HT management and the entire team for their commitment and successes to date. I am very much looking forward to actively accompanying 5-HT in its development in the future as Chairman of the Advisory Board and to supporting it in developing value-creating and economically viable innovations."

Sabine Bendiek: "I am looking forward to my new task as an advisory board member to support the 5-HT Digital Hub in bringing together as many people as possible to bring digital innovations in chemistry, health and sustainability to the streets. The Hub does a great job of promoting technologies and facilitating and actively fuelling the exchange of relevant players from industry, startups, investors and academia. In this way, projects are initiated that advance the digital transformation in the two focus sectors. For sustainable and stable industries."

"We are delighted about the continued strong support from our important shareholders BASF and SAP. Together, we are pursuing the goal of accelerating digitalisation in chemistry, health and sustainability," Kohl and Funke affirm. To this end, the Hub connects relevant players and promotes dynamic exchange within its international ecosystem.

Dr Dirk Elvermann is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Digital Officer at BASF and succeeds Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel, whose mandate ends at the close of the Annual Meeting in 2023. Elvermann has been with BASF since 2003 and has been Head of Corporate Finance since 2019. Previous positions include Chief Financial Officer of Wintershall Holding GmbH and Managing Director of BASF in Poland.

Sabine Bendiek is Chief People & Operating Officer, Labour Director and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. The People & Operations board division combines HR expertise with a mandate for operations across all board divisions. In her role, Sabine Bendiek and her team are driving SAP's transformation to the cloud. With this foundation, innovation is made possible for SAP and also for its customers. Bendiek has more than 20 years of experience as an executive in the technology industry.

The advisory board advises the 5-HT Digital Hub on all issues. It includes representatives of the shareholder companies of Digital Hub Rhein-Neckar GmbH: BASF SE, SAP SE, Pepperl+Fuchs SE, Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar GmbH, mg:mannheimer gründungszentrum gmbh, Technologiepark Heidelberg GmbH, TZL - TechnologieZentrum Ludwigshafen am Rhein GmbH.

Advisory Board of Digital Hub Rhein-Neckar GmbH (5-HT Digital Hub) from 3.3.2023:

Dr. Dirk Elvermann (Chairman), Sabine Bendiek, Dr.-Ing. Gunther Kegel, Peter Johann, Christian Sommer, Stefanie Nauel, Dr. André H. R. Domin

5-HT Digital Hub is set to grow further and is pleased to welcome additional shareholders.

The 5-HT Digital Hub Chemistry & Health is part of the Digital Hub Initiative (de:hub) initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection to promote digital innovation in Germany.

The goal of the Digital Hub is to build an international ecosystem of startups, investors and companies to drive digital innovation in the chemistry and health sectors. As a central platform, the Digital Hub offers stakeholders the opportunity to network, cooperate and co-develop.

Contact:

5-HT Digital Hub Chemistry & Health

Digital Hub Rhein-Neckar GmbH, TZL

Stefan Kohl

Donnersbergweg 1

67059 Ludwigshafen on the Rhine

Stefan.kohl@5-ht.com

Tel: +49 621 18064950

www.5-ht.com