Hanover, May 12, 2005. Martien de Louw (59), member of the Executive Board of Continental AG, Hanover, and responsible for the corporation's Passenger and Light Truck Tires division since February 1, 2003, is leaving the company by mutual agreement due to differing views over the business strategy. The chairman of the Continental Executive Board Manfred Wennemer (57) will head the Passenger and Light Truck Tires division effective immediately, in addition to his function as chairman. The international automotive supplier made the announcement in Hanover on Thursday following a Supervisory Board meeting. The Supervisory Board thanks Mr. de Louw for his work.

Here you can download the press release as a doc file

In addition to his tasks as Executive Board member responsible for finance, controlling and law, Dr. Alan Hippe (38) is taking on the responsibility for the passenger and light truck tire business in North America effective immediately for a limited period of time. He is also assuming the position of president and CEO of Continental Tire North America.

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