Dr. Herbert Heitmann to be new Head of Communications and Government Relations at Bayer

Dr. Herbert Heitmann, currently Executive Vice President of External Communications at Royal Dutch Shell, The Hague, Netherlands, will head the newly created Communications and Government Relations unit at Bayer AG with effect from September 1, 2013.

Heitmann succeeds Michael Schade, who, as announced, will join Bundesliga soccer club Bayer Leverkusen Fussball GmbH on July 1, 2013 and become its Managing Director effective October 1, 2013.

Born on September 17, 1962 in Münster, Germany, Heitmann studied process engineering at the University of Dortmund, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1995. He began his career as a process engineer with Procter & Gamble and subsequently worked at the Jülich Nuclear Research Center. After that he served as a political adviser to the German Bundestag (parliament) and to the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology.

In 1998 Heitmann joined SAP, Walldorf, initially as head of Executive Board Communications, and was subsequently appointed Chief Communications Officer with responsibility for global communications. He assumed responsibility for external communications at Shell in 2010.

Bayer's future communications chief has extensive international experience. He is a Founding President of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), Europe's first network for communications executives.

Source: Bayer