HANOVER, GERMANY - On January 1, 2012, Dr. Andreas Esser will take over management of the Commercial Vehicle Tires business unit, which was organizationally integrated into the Tires division on August 1, at Continental in Hanover. In this function, he will report directly to Nikolai Setzer, who manages the Tire division as a Continental board member. Esser is currently responsible for passenger car and van tire replacement business in the Asia/Pacific region at the international automotive supplier and world's fourth largest tire manufacturer.

"Andreas Esser has been part of the management team of the Tire division in Hanover for over ten years. He knows both the industry and our product portfolio very well. After five years in a management position in Shanghai, he also brings along experience from one of the most important growth regions to his new task. This will be extremely valuable for our set goals. Furthermore China, his current location, is the world's largest commercial vehicle tire market," said Setzer, commenting on the appointment.

Esser, who holds a PhD in chemistry, began his career at Continental in 1989 in research and development. After a range of management posts in tire development, quality management and OEM business in Europe, he gained experience abroad at Continental's North American headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then he was in charge of global car tire OEM business at Continental for six years. In 2007, he moved to the Asia headquarters in Shanghai. There he was not only responsible for car tire business, but also for truck tire business in the whole Asia/Pacific region for three years.

Following the merger of the passenger car tire and commercial vehicle tire divisions into a single Tire division, Setzer is managing the Commercial Vehicle Tires business unit until Esser takes over on January 1.

He will then be responsible for over 8,000 members of staff at ten production and development sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

In 2010, the Commercial Vehicle Tires division recorded a turnover of over €1.4bn. The business unit is thus one of the world's largest manufacturers of truck, bus and industrial tires.