Burnes steps down as CEO of Cabot. BASF man steps in

Boston, Massachusetts -- Cabot Corp. has elected Patrick Prevost to the post of

President and Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2008. Prevost

will also join Cabot's Board of Directors. He will succeed Kennett Burnes,

Cabot's current President and CEO, who will step down from those positions on

January 1, 2008.

Since October 2005, Mr. Prevost has served as President, Performance

Chemicals, of BASF AG, an international chemical company. Prior to that, he

was responsible for BASF's Chemicals & Plastics business in North America.

Before joining BASF in 2003, he held senior management positions at BP

Chemicals and Amoco. He graduated from the University of Geneva with a BS in

chemistry and received an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Prevost commented, "I am very excited to be given the opportunity to

lead a dynamic and successful enterprise such as Cabot. The company is truly

an exemplary organisation with strong values, current and future opportunities

for growth, robust financials and a strategy that has put it in a leadership

position within the specialty chemicals and materials sector."

Burnes will remain as Chairman of the Board until the 2008 Annual

Meeting of Stockholders to be held on March 13, 2008, after which he will

retire from Cabot. It is anticipated that John O'Brien, a

member of Cabot's Board of Directors, will become the Non-Executive Chairman

of the Board effective at the Annual Meeting. Mr. O'Brien has been a director

of Cabot since 1990 and Chair of the Audit Committee since 1993. He was the

President and CEO of Allmerica Financial Corporation from 1989 to 2002.

Prior to joining Allmerica, Mr. O'Brien was an executive of Fidelity

Investments for over 20 years. In addition to serving on Cabot's Audit

Committee, Mr. O'Brien currently is a member of Cabot's Governance and

Nominating Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of LKQ Corporation

and The TJX Companies, Inc.