New Head of Corporate Communications at Lufthansa

Jürgen Homeyer to take over as interim Head of Corporate Communications / Executive Board Chairman Christoph Franz thanked Klaus Walther for his outstanding work / Walther will assume new responsibilities within the Group

Jürgen Homeyer (52) will take over as interim Head of Corporate Communications until a successor is named. Homeyer was a journalist at the Handelsblatt publishing group and later at the Focus Magazin publishing house. He subsequently moved to the Metro Group, where he was Head of Corporate Communications until 2009. Jürgen Homeyer is currently Managing Director of the strategic PR agency Homeyer & Partner.

Jürgen Homeyer succeeds Klaus Walther (57), who was Senior Vice President and Head of Lufthansa Group Communications for more than 13 years. Walther was brought on board at Lufthansa in 1999 by the former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Jürgen Weber. Klaus Walther was also Senior Vice President and Head of Lufthansa Group Communications under Jürgen Weber’s successor, Wolfgang Mayrhuber. From 1 January 2011, Walther successfully oversaw the induction of Dr. Christoph Franz as CEO and Chairman of the Lufthansa Group. Today Franz paid tribute to Walther contribution to Lufthansa: "We would like to thank Klaus Walther for the excellent work he has done. He has played a decisive part in building up the outstanding global reputation of the company – a fact that is appreciated by all Lufthansa staff.”

Over the years, Walther and his communications team have received numerous awards. In 2002, Walther was named “PR Manager of the Year” for his crisis management in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2006, his team received the PR Report “Team of the Year Award” for their handling of the communications for Lufthansa’s 50th anniversary in the previous year. And in 2011, Walther was voted “Communications Personality of the Year” by PR Report for his bold communications strategy following the eruption of the Iceland volcano in 2010.

During his period in office, Klaus Walther successfully managed the communication activities relating to the takeovers of Swiss International Air Lines and Austrian Airlines as well as the acquisition of a stake in Brussels Airlines.

Klaus Walther will remain with Lufthansa and will take over the management of an Executive Board project. He thanked his team and the Executive Board for the confidence and trust they continued to place in him.

Prior to that Klaus Walther held the position of Head of Corporate Communications at Ruhrgas AG, after having spent many years as a correspondent for Germany’s public-service television broadcaster, ZDF, latterly as the US correspondent in Washington DC.