WILMINGTON, Del. (From news reports) -- DuPont Inc. announced that Chief Executive Marc Doyle and Chief Financial Officer Jeanmarie Desmond are leaving the company, effective immediately.

The specialty materials and chemicals company said Executive Chairman Ed Breen would take on the additional role of CEO and Lori Koch, vice president of investor relations and corporate financial planning, will be CFO.

"While we made some progress in 2019, we did not meet our own expectations and we now need to move aggressively to secure our foundation for growth," Breen said. "We have solid businesses, but, as we discussed on our recent earnings call, we need to accelerate operational improvement and make sure we are taking appropriate action to deliver on our commitments for the year."