Element Solutions Board Chair Martin Franklin to Step Down

Martin Franklin, the executive chairman of Element Solutions Inc., is stepping down from the board of the specialty chemicals firm after a 13-year run at the company he founded.

Franklin, a serial dealmaker who founded what was then known as Platform Specialty Products in 2013, won’t seek re-election at the company’s upcoming general meeting and will be replaced by founding board director Ian Ashken as non-executive chairman, Franklin said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Martin Franklin at the Bloomberg Invest Summit in New York in 2019.

Photographer: Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg

His decision is primarily about time and capacity, not about any change in conviction for Element’s business. “It’s really the only business ...