OREANDA-NEWS. July 07, 2016. Martin Leutke has been appointed as the new Head of Lufthansa Group Media Relations, responsible for guiding and coordinating the media activities of the Lufthansa Group worldwide. Leutke, who is 41, succeeds Andreas Bartels as of 1 October. Martin Leutke will report to Andreas Bartels who assumed his new function as Head of Lufthansa Group Corporate Communications on 1 April.

 “In Martin Leutke we have secured the services of a communications professional and a business and economics specialist who will be instrumental in shaping the further development of external communications at the Lufthansa Group,” says Andreas Bartels.

“With his extensive, varied and international experience and his proven journalistic and editorial management skills, Martin will be a genuine enrichment to our team, and we look forward to working with him.” Martin Leutke comes to Lufthansa from German TV channel ZDF, which he has been with since 1996. He began working on the channel’s “heute” news program while still a student; and after completing his studies in economics he spent several years as a foreign correspondent, based in various countries and reporting on crisis areas and major events.

He was appointed head of ZDF’s Hessen regional studio in 2009; and two years later he was named ZDF’s chief economics editor, and began to present the WISO business and consumer program. In 2014 he was additionally appointed deputy editor-in-chief of the channel’s head office for Economics, Legal Affairs, Services, Social Affairs and Environmental topics.