Wolfgang Mayrhuber succeeds Jürgen Weber as Lufthansa Chairman and CEO

At its meeting today the Lufthansa Supervisory Board named the Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, as the successor to the current Chairman and CEO, Jürgen Weber.

The change at the helm of the aviation group will take place at the next Annual General Meeting, on 18 June 2003 in Cologne. "This early decision will ensure continuity at the top of the Group," Supervisory Board Chairman Dr. Klaus Schlede said, and paid tribute to Jürgen Weber's 35-year service to Lufthansa. During his twelve years as Chairman and CEO he had successfully implemented decisive policies such as corporate rehabilitation, restructuring and privatisation. Under Weber's leadership Lufthansa and the Star Alliance, which he had initiated, had become a global player. Jürgen Weber congratulated Wolfgang Mayrhuber on behalf of the entire Executive Board: "With Wolfgang Mayrhuber at the helm the company at this difficult time is well equipped for the future. That is an important signal for our customers, our shareholders and our employees." It will be proposed to the Annual General Meeting on 18 June 2003 that Jürgen Weber be elected to the Supervisory Board.

In his position on the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG Wolfgang Mayrhuber is responsible for the autonomous Passenger Business segment. With effect from 1 April 2002 he was also appointed Deputy Chairman of the Lufthansa Group.

Alongside the traditional airline business, the passenger-business-unit remit encompasses the strategically important areas of “Corporate Infrastructure“, “Alliances and Airline Stakes“, and “Operational Excellence“. Wolfgang Mayrhuber is thus responsible for the Group’s biggest business operation, employing more than 30,000 staff in the cockpit and cabin, at ground stations in Germany and around the world, and worldwide sales. Superior technical and aviation competence, acknowledged service standards and a unique, global network operated by Lufthansa in harness with its Star Alliance partners are the core values associated, worldwide, with the passenger airline that he now heads.

Wolfgang Mayrhuber is a born and bred “Lufthanseat” with 30 years of service with the Group. He joined Lufthansa on 1 February 1970 as an engineer at the power plant overhaul facility in Hamburg. After holding a variety of management posts in the MRO operation, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Technical at Lufthansa on 1 November 1992. In the early nineties, Wolfgang Mayrhuber acquired special experience as head of the rehabilitation team engineering Lufthansa’s recovery. Subsequently, he became Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik AG when it became an independent company in October 1994 and exercised an influential role in its ongoing evolution into a global supplier of MRO services, networked with 23 subsidiaries, worldwide. After six years in that post, Wolfgang Mayrhuber was appointed to the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG on 1 January 2001.

Born in Waizenkirchen/Austria on 22 March 1947, Wolfgang Mayrhuber studied mechanical engineering at the Technical College in Steyr/Austria and at the Bloor Institute in Canada. In autumn 1990, he completed an Executive Management Training course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.