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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Christophe Fouquet became ASML’s President and CEO after the company’s April 24, 2024 annual general meeting. Peter Wennink did not leave alone: Martin van den Brink, ASML’s long-serving President and Chief Technology Officer, completed his term at the same meeting. ASML had announced the planned succession on November 30, 2023, and said Fouquet began his new role on April 25, 2024.
As of ASML’s latest annual-report disclosures, Fouquet remains the incumbent President and CEO. The handover was a planned internal succession, but it was consequential because ASML lost its principal executive and technology leaders simultaneously.
The ASML succession timeline
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| November 30, 2023 | ASML announced that its Supervisory Board intended to appoint then-chief business officer Christophe Fouquet as President and CEO. It also announced the planned retirements of Peter Wennink and Martin van den Brink after their terms ended at the 2024 AGM. ASML announcement |
| April 24, 2024 | Shareholders approved the changes at ASML’s Annual General Meeting. Wennink and van den Brink’s terms ended, and Fouquet was appointed President and CEO. AGM results |
| April 25, 2024 | ASML’s corporate profile identifies this as Fouquet’s first day in the new role. Fouquet profile |
The different April dates describe different parts of the same transition: formal approval and the end of the outgoing appointments occurred at the AGM, while ASML describes Fouquet as starting the following day.
Why Peter Wennink retired
ASML described the change as the completion of Wennink and van den Brink’s appointment terms following a comprehensive succession-planning process. The company did not present it as a sudden resignation, dismissal, health-related departure or board dispute. “Retired” therefore means that Wennink completed his ASML term; it does not establish what other professional activities he may undertake afterward.
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Fouquet is an internal successor whose career covered products, technology and customers:
- He joined ASML in 2008 in marketing and product-management roles.
- He joined the Board of Management in 2018.
- From 2018 to 2022, he was executive vice president responsible for EUV technology.
- He served as chief business officer from 2022 until becoming President and CEO.
That path matters because ASML’s chief executive must understand both the engineering of extremely complex lithography systems and the commercial planning of the chipmakers that buy them. Fouquet led EUV technology as an executive; that is evidence of relevant experience, not a claim that he personally created EUV or represents the work of ASML’s wider engineering organization.
ASML’s Board of Management page lists him as the company’s President and CEO.
The departure was a two-leader handover
Wennink’s executive and external role
Wennink had led ASML since 2014 and was the company’s public-facing chief executive during its rise into one of Europe’s most strategically important technology businesses. Reuters reported that ASML’s share price increased more than tenfold during his tenure. That performance should not be attributed to one person alone: ASML’s development spans decades and depends on employees, suppliers, customers, research partnerships and successive management teams.
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Van den Brink was ASML’s long-serving technology leader and co-president. His simultaneous departure removed a deep source of product and engineering institutional knowledge. Treating the event as only “Wennink’s retirement” understates the scale of the leadership change.
ASML’s 2024 and 2025 reporting records both men as having stepped down as Presidents on April 24, 2024. 2024 filing
What Fouquet inherited
ASML supplies the hardware, software and services used by semiconductor manufacturers to mass-produce integrated-circuit patterns. Its systems sit at a critical point in the global chip supply chain, so the CEO’s job extends beyond setting a corporate plan.
Protecting lithography leadership
Fouquet must maintain ASML’s lead in advanced lithography while moving research and development into reliable, manufacturable products. EUV is already central to leading-edge chip production, and future milestones such as high-NA EUV will test engineering execution, supplier readiness and customer adoption.
Delivering complex systems at scale
ASML has to convert demand into dependable production, installation and service. That requires coordinating a global supplier network, managing manufacturing constraints and meeting customer delivery schedules. Leadership commentary alone cannot show whether delivery performance has improved; order intake, backlog, shipment timing and service results provide better evidence.
Managing strategic customers
Major chipmakers make multiyear capacity and capital-spending decisions. Fouquet’s business background is relevant here, and ASML created a chief customer officer position as part of the transition. The new role signals an emphasis on customer coordination; it does not prove that customers were previously dissatisfied.
Navigating changing chip demand and policy
ASML identified artificial intelligence, edge computing and the clean-energy transition as demand drivers. Fouquet also faces export-control rules, geopolitical restrictions and the concentration of demand among a relatively small number of sophisticated customers. These conditions can affect shipment timing and investment plans even when the underlying technology roadmap remains intact.
Continuity or strategic break?
The available evidence supports an internally managed continuity transition rather than a wholesale strategic revolution:
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- Fouquet was already a senior executive and Board of Management member.
- His background combines EUV technology with business and customer responsibilities.
- The Supervisory Board described a structured succession process.
- The addition of a chief customer officer gives the management team a clearer customer-coordination remit.
Continuity does not mean Fouquet must copy Wennink’s decisions. The board’s process and Fouquet’s résumé show preparation for the role, but only subsequent choices on capital allocation, product priorities, customer policy and government relations can demonstrate whether strategy changed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The management structure after the AGM
Fouquet became ASML’s sole President and CEO and chair of the Board of Management under the company’s governance structure. The management team announced with the transition included:
- Roger Dassen, chief financial officer
- Frédéric Schneider-Maunoury, chief operating officer
- Wayne Allan, chief strategic sourcing and procurement officer
- Jim Koonmen, chief customer officer, a newly created Board of Management role
ASML’s announcement of the management changes is available here.
What investors and industry readers should watch
The transition itself does not establish that ASML’s operating performance improved or deteriorated. Useful indicators for judging Fouquet’s tenure include:
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- Order intake and backlog: whether demand converts into visible future revenue.
- EUV and high-NA EUV milestones: delivery, installation and customer-qualification progress.
- Production capacity and delivery timing: evidence of execution through the supplier network.
- Customer spending plans: especially changes in leading-edge chip-factory investment.
- Gross margin and service revenue: measures of mix, installed-base economics and execution.
- Export-control effects: restrictions that alter which systems can be shipped and when.
- Supplier constraints: bottlenecks that can limit output regardless of end-market demand.
- Fouquet’s own communications: disclosures about research spending, capital expenditure and customer priorities.
- Customer coordination: whether the chief customer officer role produces clearer planning and delivery communication.
Remuneration disclosures in context
ASML disclosed total 2024 remuneration of €4.209 million for Fouquet, covering his time both as a regular Board of Management member and as President and CEO. It disclosed €4.993 million for Wennink and €4.985 million for van den Brink. These are accounting disclosures, not necessarily cash received during the calendar year. The 2025 annual report says the former executives remained eligible for performance shares granted under the 2022, 2023 and 2024 long-term incentive plans, subject to the applicable performance conditions. ASML 2025 annual-report filing
The Bottom Line
ASML’s leadership change was completed in April 2024 through a planned internal succession. Fouquet brought EUV, business and customer experience to the President and CEO role, while Wennink and van den Brink both left after completing their terms. That combination points to strategic continuity, but the loss of two central leaders makes execution, technology milestones and customer delivery the clearest tests of Fouquet’s leadership.
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