UPDATE 4-DuPont names Ellen Kullman president and CEO

(Recasts, adds comments from executives, background)

By Euan Rocha

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - DuPont Co (DD.N) has named Ellen Kullman its chief executive, making her one of the most powerful women in industry and marking the first time in DuPont's 206-year history that a woman has taken its helm.

Kullman, 52, will take over on Jan. 1 from retiring Charles Holliday, who headed the U.S. chemical company for more than 10 years. Kullman was also named president and a director of the company, effective Oct. 1.

Holliday, 60, will serve as chairman of DuPont and as a board member until Kullman's expected succession as chairman, DuPont said in a statement on Tuesday.

"I just believe very strongly that it is important to rotate and give the next series of managers an opportunity to make improvements to what we have in place," said Holliday. "This is the right time to make this transition, and I feel great about it."

Kullman, who joined DuPont in 1988 from General Electric (GE.N), was groomed for the CEO's job over the past two years and was widely expected to succeed Holliday.

"This gets the succession planning sorted out. It's a good move to bring in Ellen, considering that she is already running most of the segments of the company," said HSBC analyst Hassan Ahmed.

Kullman has been responsible for four of DuPont's five main business segments: Coatings & Color Technologies, Electronic & Communication Technologies, Performance Materials, and Safety & Protection businesses.

She has also worked as executive vice president and was a member of DuPont's office of the chief executive.

Kullman was recently named by Forbes as one of the world's 100 most powerful women. She joins a handful of women who head some of the largest U.S. companies, including PepsiCo's (PEP.N) Indra Nooyi, WellPoint's (WLP.N) Angela Braly, Xerox Corp's(XRX.N) Anne Mulcahy and Archer Daniel Midland's (ADM.N) Patricia Woertz.

Last week, Kraft Foods (KFT.N) was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI, making its CEO Irene Rosenfeld the only woman currently at the helm of a Dow 30 company.

Kullman, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, began her career at DuPont in 1988 as marketing manager in the Medical Imaging business. She is currently on the board of directors of U.S. automaker General Motors (GM.N).

GROWTH STRATEGY

Kullman said she wants to drive DuPont's earnings growth by focusing on four core areas: agriculture, safety and protection, emerging markets and cost reduction.

"I think this strategy is the right one. I don't think the current (market) conditions will mean major changes to it," she said in an interview.