BELLEVUE, Washington, March 9, 2009 -- Univar, a world leader in chemical distribution, today announced the following management changes.

Rogelio Lara recently joined Univar as Vice President – Financial Planning & Analysis. He will provide financial engineering, modeling and analysis in support of Univar’s strategic planning and business development. He will lead Univar’s efforts in budgeting and forecasting, analyzing and reporting on operating results and identifying economic profit improvement opportunities.

Lara has an extensive background in financial management and analysis. He spent 32 years with The Dow Chemical Company, the last five years as Vice President, Finance and CFO of Dow AgroSciences. He was responsible for the overall financial affairs and financial health of the company. He earned an MBA in International Business & Economics from the University of Miami.

Doug Drew has been named Vice President – Treasurer. Drew joins Univar after 22 years with the Sprint organization. Most recently, he was the Vice President and Assistant Treasurer – Sprint Nextel Corporation, a company with annual gross revenue of $50 billion, serving 50 million customers. He led the Treasury Services team with responsibility for bank relationships, liquidity management, investments, bank credit facilities, commercial paper and customer payment operations.

Drew has broad financial expertise in Treasury, Accounting, Financial Planning, Analysis and Reporting. He earned a BS/BA in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Kansas. He is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated from the Executive Leadership Development Program at Sprint Nextel.

Pat Walker has been appointed Vice President – Planning for Univar. In her new role, Walker will be responsible for strategic planning that is aligned with Univar’s long-term objectives. She will identify marketplace opportunities and develop tactical goals with our business unit leadership teams in our current and future markets.

Walker’s most recent position was Vice President – Business Development for Asia Pacific and South America. During her 28-year tenure with the company, Walker has held various sales and senior management positions including Regional Vice President – Western for Univar USA.

Russell Day has been named Vice President – Development. In his role, Day will be responsible for planning and commercial efforts in Asia Pacific, corporate development activities, and leadership of global merger, acquisition, and divestiture activities. He has been with Univar for five years, most recently as Vice President – Strategic Planning.

Lara, Drew, Walker and Day will report to Steve Nielsen, Senior Vice President – Chief Financial Officer for Univar.

About Univar

Univar is one of the world’s leading independent distributors of industrial chemicals and providers of related specialty services, operating throughout North America and Europe. Univar endeavors to service its customer base, made up of some 250,000 industrial customers, with a full portfolio of products. The majority are commodities that the company buys in bulk, then processes, blends and repacks to meet the diverse requirements of the industries we serve. Others are specialties – purchased pre-packaged and sold on a technical basis, usually under a manufacturer’s own brand. Univar operates a network of approximately 200 distribution centers located throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and China. In 2007, Univar reported sales of $8.1 billion. Univar has approximately 7,700 employees based throughout North America, Europe and China.