Life Sciences and Materials Sciences firm Royal DSM N.V. (RDSMY.PK) Monday proposed the appointment of Geraldine Matchett as finance chief. The company's CFO Rolf-Dieter Schwalb will step down on December 1.<br /><br />Schwalb has been the DSM CFO for 8 years, during which the company completed its transformation into a Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company. Schwalb will step down as CFO as of December 1, but will remain available for assistance till 2014 financial closing.<br /><br />Geraldine Matchett is currently the Global Chief Financial Officer and member of the Operations Council of the SGS Group.<br /><br />SGS Group is a publicly quoted company on the SIX Swiss stock exchange and a leading company in inspection, verification, testing and certification with 80,000 employees and annual revenues of around 6 billion Swiss francs.<br /><br />Geraldine has three nationalities - Swiss, British and French - and has previously worked in London for KPMG and in Switzerland for Deloitte as financial auditor and audit manager.<br /><br />She has extensive experience with interaction with all relevant stakeholders and has been actively involved in corporate development activities. She has managed many areas of the finance function across the world. She was recently voted CFO of the year in Switzerland for large companies.