December 22, 2008
Commerzbank to reorganize its public affairs activities
Commerzbank is reorganizing its public affairs activities within Group Communications. Both political liaison offices in Berlin and Brussels are being combined with the Issue and Reputation Management departments to form the new Public Affairs business area. Commerzbank's goal is to become the market leader in Germany, take account of growing social and political demands and strengthen its active role in the opinion-forming process.
Hansgeorg Hauser, 65, Board of Managing Directors appointee and head of the political liaison office in Berlin, will be in charge of the new specialist area until the middle of next year. He will also remain responsible for the Berlin office until he retires on 30 June 2009. Mr Hauser joined Commerzbank in 2000. He served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 to 2002 and was Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Finance between 1995 and 1998. Since 2000, he has also set up the Berlin liaison office at the Commerzbank building on Pariser Platz and turned it into a central communications hub for politics, diplomacy and organizations.
Helmuth Martin, 63, head of the Brussels EU liaison office, will complete more than 40 years of active service for Commerzbank on 31 March 2009. Mr Martin, who has built up Commerzbank's political liaison activities in Brussels, began his career at Commerzbank as a bank trainee in 1965. In 1992, after holding a string of posts in the domestic and foreign banking businesses, he was put in charge of managing and expanding the EU liaison office in Brussels.
Mr Hauser's successor as head of the Public Affairs area and Board of Managing Directors appointee will be Heiner Herkenhoff, 45, a member of the Management Board of the German Banking Association. Mr Herkenhoff was previously Head of Communications and Marketing at KPMG and held a number of political posts, including the head of CDU party leader and German Chancellor Dr Helmut Kohl's office between 1994 and 1998.
Commerzbank Chief Executive Martin Blessing extends a warm thank you to Mr Hauser and Mr Martin for their work and high level of dedication to the Bank. "Our colleagues Mr Hauser and Mr Martin have made a crucial and, especially, a positive contribution to Commerzbank's 'political' face in Berlin and Brussels over many long years. On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend our most heartfelt thanks to both of them for their work. May I wish our new colleague Mr Herkenhoff a positive start as he joins the new Bank and every success in his new enterprise."
