Effective May 1, 2016, Dr. Michael Preuss (42) will become head of Communications, Government Relations and Corporate Brand at Bayer AG.
This organizational unit covers the company’s internal, external and digital communications, and has responsibility for political communication activities and the Bayer umbrella brand. Preuss currently heads the Corporate Communications department at Bayer. In his new function, he will report to Werner Baumann, who will become Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG effective May 1, 2016. Preuss will succeed Dr. Herbert Heitmann (53), who is leaving the company at his own request. Heitmann has been head of Communications, Government Relations and Corporate Brand since September 2013.
Dr. Michael Preuss was born in Neuss, Germany, on July 17, 1973. He studied German and media and political science at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, completing his PhD there in 2001. Following a number of internships in Germany and abroad during his studies, he began his career at Bayer AG in 1998, working first as a media spokesman for the North America region. From 2002, he headed the Media Relations and PR department at Bayer MaterialScience AG. In 2005, Preuss moved to Robert Bosch GmbH to head that company’s Media Relations and PR department, before returning to Bayer AG in 2008 as head of Corporate Policy and Media Relations, which became Corporate Communications in 2015.
Dr. Herbert HeitmannBorn on September 17, 1962, in Münster, Germany, Dr. Herbert Heitmann studied chemical engineering at the University of Dortmund, where he obtained his PhD in 1995. Heitmann began his career as a process engineer with Procter & Gamble and Henkel. He then worked as a research scientist at the Jülich Nuclear Research Center. After that he served for six years as a political adviser to the German Bundestag (parliament) and the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT). In 1998, Heitmann joined SAP in Walldorf, Germany, where he headed Corporate Communications and Investor Relations (IR) and led their global expansion. Between 2010 and September 2013, he was responsible for external communications at Royal Dutch Shell in Den Haag, Netherlands. Heitmann is a Founding President of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) and a trustee of the Arthur W. Page Society.
Source: Bayer
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