To support the company’s global business strategy, DaimlerChrysler AG on Sept. 10 announced the creation of a new worldwide External Affairs and Public Policy (EAPP) department, to be headed by Group Senior Vice President Robert G. Liberatore, effective Jan. 1, 2004. The new group will further unify the company’s corporate representation with governments and societies around the world on behalf of all of its business units, according to DaimlerChrysler AG. Liberatore, currently senior vice president of EAPP for the NAFTA Region, will oversee a department with offices in more than 40 countries worldwide, reporting to Jürgen E. Schrempp, DaimlerChrysler chairman. Current senior vice president of EAPP Worldwide (excluding NAFTA) Matthias Kleinert will retire at the end of 2003, but remain with the company as a consultant. In conjunction with the formation of the global EAPP department, Dr. Michael J. Inacker, Timothy J. McBride and W. Frank Fountain, Jr. will be part of the new global EAPP leadership team reporting to Liberatore. Dr. Michael J. Inacker will replace Kleinert, joining the company in the role of Vice President in charge of the Stuttgart-based EAPP operation, which oversees most of the worldwide corporate representative organization. Dr. Inacker currently works as head of the Berlin Bureau of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, and will join the company later this year. He previously served two years at DaimlerChrysler as chief of the Chairman’s Planning Staff. Timothy J. McBride will be vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based EAPP operation, which will oversee the Americas region. McBride is currently a DaimlerChrysler vice president reporting to Rüdiger Grube, board member for corporate development, and previously was vice president public affairs in the Washington EAPP office. Before joining DaimlerChrysler in 1995, McBride had extensive background in government service with the Reagan and Bush White Houses. W. Frank Fountain, Jr. is senior vice president in charge of the Auburn Hills, Mich.n-based EAPP operation, which includes U.S. state government relations, community relations and the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund. Fountain is a 30-year veteran of the Chrysler Group and has been in his current role, which includes serving as President of the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, since 1995. The global EAPP department’s primary role will be to manage increasingly complex and interwoven domestic and international government policies wherever DaimlerChrysler does business. In addition, the group will continue to play an important role in DaimlerChrysler’s corporate social responsibility efforts, including administering the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund.