OREANDA-NEWS.  Matthias Fritton (49) will be appointed Senior General Manager of Deutsche Börse AG, with effect from 1 March 2016. His portfolio in this newly-created function will comprise the Corporate Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs area of the exchange group. Mr Fritton will report directly to CEO Carsten Kengeter.

Following a comprehensive restructuring of Executive Board responsibilities, effective since the beginning of this year, Deutsche Börse AG will shift marketing activities from its business divisions to the Group's Head Office. By bringing together responsibility for marketing, government relations and corporate communications under the leadership of Fritton, Deutsche Börse Group wants to strengthen its corporate image, and will further enhance the Group’s market and client focus. Likewise, the change highlights the importance for Deutsche Börse of conveying topics and issues that are relevant to exchanges vis-à-vis society, multipliers and political decision-makers.

Frank Klaas (57), Managing Director, Global Public Affairs, and Rüdiger Assion (49), Director, Corporate Communications, will report directly to Matthias Fritton. The structure for the Group’s centralised marketing activities is yet to be developed.

CEO Carsten Kengeter commented on the appointment: “With Matthias Fritton, we have appointed a trusted senior executive who holds an outstanding, extensive network within business, politics and the media. Moreover, he will be able to provide strategic momentum to further expand and sharpen our profile as a global financial infrastructure provider. The experience he gained as a partner at Egon Zehnder will also help us to further develop our organisation.”

Matthias Fritton was born in 1966 in Heilbronn, Germany. He started his career as a freelance journalist during his studies; he holds a PhD from the University of Tübingen. In the early 1990s, he worked as a speech writer for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl; he subsequently served as Head of Department in the Political Strategy Directorate at the German Federal Ministry of Transport. Mr Fritton joined KfW Group as Head of Global Communications and Marketing in 1998; in 2006 he took over Group Communications and Marketing at Dresdner Bank AG. He joined executive search consultancy Egon Zehnder in 2008 and was appointed partner in 2013.

Deutsche Börse AG announced further changes to its management structure, effective 1 January 2016: Dr Sabine Roeckl-Schmidt (50) was appointed Managing Director, Human Resources; and Rüdiger Assion (49) was appointed Managing Director, Communications.