ASML Holding NV plans to appoint Christophe Fouquet as the company's next chief executive officer and president, when its two co-presidents retire in 2024.
Fouquet, now the Dutch firm's chief business officer, is slated to take the helm when CEO Peter Wennink and Chief Technology Officer Martin van den Brink retire at the next shareholders' meeting on April 24 next year. The appointment is subject to shareholder approval, the company said in a statement.
Wennink, who has been leading the company since July 2013, steered the company through the introduction of its most advanced chipmaking machines, and turned ASML into the leading equipment provider for semiconductors that power everything from smartphones and servers to electric vehicles and sophisticated military gear. The company's shares surged more than 850% during his tenure.
More recently, Wennink has helmed the company through geopolitical turbulence as the US and China increasingly clashed over national security. The CEO was unusually outspoken in his criticism of policies that limited global trade.
In 2019, under pressure from the Trump administration, the Dutch government withheld an export license enabling ASML to sell its top-of-the-line extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography machines to China. Then, pushed by the Biden administration, the Netherlands tightened export controls on China further this year.
In the 10 years that Wennink has run ASML, China has gone from a rounding error to one of its biggest markets. He has tried to protect this key source of growth, arguing that clamping down on exports could eventually push Beijing to develop its own advanced chipmaking machines.
CTO Van den Brink joined the company in 1984 and is seen as one of the most influential executives behind ASML's technology innovations. Over his nearly four decades at the company, ASML has gone from a bit player competing with the likes of Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc. to the world's only maker of very high-end semiconductor lithography equipment.
