Hanover, 17th January 2006. Alexander Lührs, the newly-appointed head of Tyre PR at Continental AG, has been recruited from the company's own ranks. Lührs (34) succeeds Rainer Strang, who left the company in February 2005. Commenting on his new post, he says: "I look forward to this assignment, working with Germany's leading tyre manufacturer and Official Partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup GermanyTM".

Here you can download the press release as a doc-file (50 KB).

Alexander Lührs joined Continental in October 2003 and up till now has been responsible for the European market organisations and the press work relating to all of Continental's football activities as one of the Official Partners of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM, as well as the website www.ContiSoccerWorld.de. Born in Hanover, Lührs, an economics graduate, previously worked for four years with DEWB AG, a quoted company which is part of the Jenoptik Group. Here, in addition to setting up press activities and carrying out quarterly reporting, he was responsible for PR coaching of the portfolio companies and development of the website. After studying economics at Hanover University, Alexander Lührs completed an international postgraduate course, obtaining a Master of Business and Engineering qualification at the Steinbeis University in Berlin.

In his new position, Alexander Lührs will report to the Car Tyre Marketing Division and to Corporate Communications, headed by Dr. Heimo Prokop.

The Continental Corporation is a leading supplier of brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics, tyres and technical elastomers. In 2004 the corporation realised sales of EUR12.6 billion. At present it has a worldwide workforce of more than 81,000.

The tyre business unit is an Official Partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup GermanyTM. For further information visit the websites www.ContiSoccerWorld.com and www.conti-online.com.