Düsseldorf, 11 March 2008. Dr. Mark Speich (38) will be taking up the position of Head of Corporate Responsibility and Foundations at Vodafone on 1 May 2008. He has also been appointed as CEO of Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland GmbH. Speich is replacing Dr. Bern-hard Lorentz, who moved to the Mercator Foundation on 1 March. Since the beginning of 2006, Speich has been working directly for CDU/CSU party whip, Volker Kauder (MP), as Head of the CDU/CSU Planning Group in the German Bundestag. Prior to this, between 1999 and 2005, he worked at ALTANA AG's Herbert Quandt Foundation in several man-agement positions, the final one being manager of the Foundation's Berlin Office. In both his Vodafone functions he will report to Thomas Eller-beck, Head of Corporate Communi-cations and Public Affairs at Vodafone Germany and Chairman of the Vodafone Foundation Germany's Advisory Board.
After graduating from Bonn University (where he studied business history, political science and constitutional law), a period of study in Cambridge and a period of work experience at the CDU Secretary General's Political Advisory Office, Speich embarked upon his career as personal advisor to Bonn University's rector. Speich later obtained his PhD parallel to his career. His advisor was the reputed Bonn historian and political scientist, Professor Hans-Peter Schwarz. Mark Speich is married with four children.
Thomas Ellerbeck: "Dr. Mark Speich is contributing his extensive scientific, political and foundation-related experience, plus the know-how that he gained working for a very suc-cessful multinational corporation. These competences and his proven managerial skills make him the ideal choice as Head of Corporate Responsibility and Foundations and CEO of the Vodafone Foundation."
In this new function, Speich will be coordinating all of Vodafone Germany's CSR activities. These include youth and consumer protection projects, mobile phone re-use and recycling projects, energy efficiency and climate protection activities. Vodafone is also involved in the science, education, environment and social projects.
As CEO, Speich will be responsible for the work of Vodafone Foundation Germany; one of the biggest corporate foundations in Germany. According to its charter, the foundation is involved in the three areas of education, social welfare and health. An additional involve-ment in art and culture provides talented young individuals who are not eligible for other sponsorships or grants with development opportunities. The foundation focuses the early identification of social challenges with the objective of designing, develop-ping and suppor-ting model solutions. It invests around five million euro every year in these projects.
Speich is also in charge of the Vodafone Foundation for Research in Mobile Commu-nications. This foundation was established in 1996 by Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH. The foundation's objectives are to promote research and scientific progress in the field of mobile communications and to improve scientific know-how exchange in the field of mobile com-munications. Every year, it presents an Innovation Award and Pro-motion Awards for out-standing work by talented young scientists.
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Vodafone Germany is one of the largest and most modern telecommunications providers in Europe. It serves almost 34 million customers, realises turnover of more than EUR 8 billion and has 9,000 employees. Vodafone Germany is an innovative technology and service enterprise, offering a comprehensive range of mobile communication services from one provider. The portfolio includes mobile communications and fixed network telephony, as well as data services for business and private customers. Continuous development, numerous patents and investments in new products, services and the modern network have made Vodafone an innovation leader in the German telecommunications market. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf. Eight branch offices and a chain of 1600 Vodafone shops keep us close to our customers. The Vodafone Germany group of companies also includes a majority shareholding in the Arcor telecommunications group, which is headquartered in Eschborn, Germany. Vodafone Germany is committed to CSR and it additionally supports numerous projects through the German Vodafone Foundation.
The company is part of the Vodafone Group. Visit the website at www.vodafone.de for further information.