Grace Names Thomas Blaser Senior Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer Designate

COLUMBIA, Md., Feb. 11, 2016 -- W. R. Grace & Co. (NYSE:GRA) announced today that Thomas E. Blaser has been named Senior Vice President, Finance, and is expected to be elected Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective immediately following the filing in late February of the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K.  At that time, Hudson La Force is expected to resign as Chief Financial Officer. La Force was named President and Chief Operating Officer on Feb. 4, 2016.

Grace Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Festa said, “Tom is a proven leader with strong specialty chemical industry experience with global companies. He will be a great addition to our leadership team as we grow our business, maintain our ROIC discipline, and increase productivity through manufacturing excellence.”

Blaser was most recently President of Arysta LifeScience North America, LLC, a global agricultural chemical and life science business where he also served for 10 years as Chief Financial Officer. Previously he held business development and financial leadership roles with Honeywell and Price Waterhouse.  He earned an MBA at Columbia University and a BS in Accounting at Montclair State University.

About Grace

Built on talent, technology, and trust, Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and engineered materials. The company’s two industry-leading business segments—Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies—provide innovative products, technologies, and services that enhance the products and processes of our customer partners around the world. Grace employs approximately 3,700 people in over 30 countries. More information about Grace is available at grace.com.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “suggests,” “anticipates,” “outlook,” “continues,” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; operating plans; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. Like other businesses, Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: risks related to foreign operations, especially in emerging regions; the cost and availability of raw materials and energy; the effectiveness of its research and development and growth investments; acquisitions and divestitures of assets and gains and losses from dispositions; developments affecting Grace’s outstanding indebtedness; developments affecting Grace's funded and unfunded pension obligations; its legal and environmental proceedings; uncertainties related to the company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the separation transaction; the inability to establish or maintain certain business relationships and relationships with customers and suppliers  or the inability to retain key personnel during the period following the separation transaction; costs of compliance with environmental regulation; and those additional factors set forth in Grace's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov.  Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Grace's projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.

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