Pittsburgh
March 7, 2002

The Supervisory Board of Bayer AG announced today that Dr. Attila Molnar (53) will become President of Bayer Corporation and Senior Bayer Executive for the USA, succeeding Helge H. Wehmeier (59), who will retire from the company after more than 35 years of service, effective July 1, 2002. Bayer Corporation is the U.S. subsidiary of Bayer Group of Germany, a $29 billion international life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals group.

Molnar is currently a member of the Bayer AG Board of Management. He worked for Bayer in the United States on two previous occasions. Prior to his appointment to the Board, he was General Manager of the company's global Organic Chemicals (now Basic and Fine Chemicals) Business Group.

To assist Molnar and the entire organization with the leadership transition for Bayer in the U.S., Wehmeier has accepted an interim position of Vice Chair of Bayer Corporation, a non-executive position. Wehmeier has held the top U.S. post since 1991.

Molnar was appointed to the Bayer AG Board of Management in 1999. On the board he is responsible for the Agriculture business segment, the representative for North America and Mexico as well as the Chairman of the Central Committee for Environmental Protection and Safety. He is also Labor Director.

Molnar was born on August 17, 1948, in Thalmaessing, Bavaria, Germany. He obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Erlangen University and joined Bayer AG on March 1, 1978, as a plant manager at the company's Leverkusen site. Two years later he moved to Bayer's U.S. subsidiary, known at the time as Mobay, where he worked in Polyurethanes manufacturing in New Martinsville, W.Va., and Baytown, Texas. He returned to Germany in 1983 as manager of the company's TDI facility in Brunsbuttel.

In 1986, Molnar moved back to the U.S. as Regional Production Manager for Polyurethanes and Coating Raw Materials in Baytown. In 1988, he moved to the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh where he was given overall responsibility for Polyurethanes manufacturing in the U.S. On his return to Leverkusen in 1990 he was placed in charge of global manufacturing for the Coatings and Colorants Raw Materials Business Group. In 1992, he also became Chairman of the Quality Management Steering Committee at Bayer AG. In 1996, Molnar was appointed General Manager of the Basic and
Fine Chemicals Business Group.

Molnar and his wife, Patricia, plan to relocate from Germany to the Pittsburgh area later this year.

On July 1, 1991, Wehmeier became President and CEO of the holding company Bayer USA Inc., which in 1992 became the operating company Miles Inc. through the merger of Mobay Corporation, Agfa Corporation and Miles Inc. The operating company changed its name to Bayer Corporation in 1995.

Born in 1943 in Goettingen, Germany, Wehmeier joined Bayer AG as a management trainee at its Leverkusen, Germany, headquarters in 1965 and was transferred to Mobay's New York office in 1969 to assume responsibility for marketing synthetic fibers in the United States and Canada. In 1974 he returned to Leverkusen, from where he ran the fibers marketing organization for Scandinavia and the British Isles, later becoming General Manager, based in London, for the fibers business in the UK. In 1984, he was named to head the Industrial Photographic Division of the Bayer subsidiary Agfa-Gevaert AG and joined their Board of Management in July 1987 with responsibility for Agfa's worldwide consumer product business.

Wehmeier was named President and Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed Agfa Corporation, Ridgefield Park, N.J., in January 1989, and simultaneously elected to the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Bayer USA Inc.

Within the chemical industry, Wehmeier is known for his leadership in the areas of health and safety. Most notable was his work as a member of the American Chemistry Council Executive Committee and as chairman of the ACC Board Research Committee, which launched an innovative initiative on long- range research into the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment.

He and his wife, Erika, have two daughters.

Bayer AG top management named

At its meeting today the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG made a number of additional decisions concerning the company's future top management. Klaus Kuehn (50), currently Head of Finance, and Dr. Richard Pott (48), at present General Manager of the Specialty Products Business Group, will join the company's Board of Management effective May 1, 2002. Pott will be responsible for Strategy and Human Resources on the Board of the future holding company. Kuehn will succeed Werner Wenning (55) as the member of the Board responsible for Finance. Wenning is due to take over Dr. Manfred
Schneider's position as Chairman of the Board of Management following this year's Annual Stockholders' Meeting on April 26. Schneider (63) will then move to the Supervisory Board, where he will stand for election as its Chairman after spending ten years at the helm of the company.

In addition to Werner Wenning as its Chairman, the Management Board of the new holding company will have four other members: Dr. Richard Pott (Strategy, Human Resources and Labor Director), Klaus Kuehn (Finance), Dr. Udo Oels (58, Technology and Environment), and Werner Spinner (53, Marketing, Regions and Services).

Dr. Gottfried Zaby (51), regional representative for Europe and representative for the Chemicals segment on the present Board of Management, will leave the company by mutual agreement.

The restructuring of the Bayer Group into a management holding company with four legally independent subgroups and three service companies is progressing quickly. The intention is to clearly separate the strategic management from the business operations and to have the new company operating in its restructured form from July 1, 2002. The holding company will officially be established on January 1, 2003.

Board member Dr. Frank Morich (48) will assume another management function in the new organization effective July 1, 2002. He will become Chairman of the Board of the future Bayer HealthCare AG, incorporating the current Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Care, Diagnostics, Biological Products and Animal Health business groups.

The Bayer Board of Management has appointed the General Manager of the Coatings & Colorants Business Group, Dr. Ulrich Koemm (51), as Chairman of the Board of Bayer Chemicals AG, which will consist of the Basic & Fine Chemicals and Specialty Products business groups, plus the two subsidiaries H. C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode.

The Board Chairman of Bayer Polymers AG with its Plastics, Rubber, Polyurethanes and Coatings & Colorants operations will be Dr. Hagen Noerenberg (55), who has been General Manager of the Polyurethanes Business Group since the beginning of this year.

Dr. Jochen Wulff (62), General Manager of the Crop Protection Business Group, was recently appointed Chairman of the Management Board of Bayer CropScience AG, which is to be created from the merger of Bayer's Crop Protection business with Aventis CropScience.

The managing directors of the new service companies have also been decided: Bayer Business Services GmbH, which will look after all the business and administrative services, will be managed by Professor Dr. Gottfried Plumpe (52), who is currently responsible for the Corporate Planning and Controlling Division.

Dr. Wolfram Wagner (58), who currently heads Central Technology, will become Managing Director of Bayer Technology Services GmbH, which will look after all the technological services in the future Group.

Dr. Juergen Hinz (55) will continue in his present function to head Bayer Standortdienste GmbH & Co. OHG, which will combine all the services at the German sites.

Bayer AG's Supervisory Board today also agreed to the Board of Management's suggestion to propose to the Annual Stockholders' Meeting on April 26, 2002, a dividend for 2001 of EUR 0.90 per share (previous year: EUR 1.40). With some 730 million shares, this would represent a payout of EUR 657 million.

Biographies of the new Bayer management are available at www.press.bayer.com or www.bayerus.com/about/leaders/index.html.