Kirnberger stands down after 15 years
Dirk Gerdom was elected as the new president of the VDR, the German travel managers' association at its spring conference in Cologne last week.
Mr Gerdom, head of global travel management for SAP, takes over from Michael Kirnberger (see ABTN special feature: Kirnberger stands down at VDR) who served 15 years as president.
Mr Kirnberger is now retiring from his job as travel manager for Merck Germany.
Mr Gerdom, 42, who is based in Walldorf, near Heidelberg, has been member of the VDR board since 2003.
A spokesman for the organisation said that it was likely there would be no major policy shifts at the VDR and it would continue along the same track as the previous board.
About 220 VDR members attended the three day conference. One of the major sessions was devoted to workshops at which the buyers discussed how best to deal with the economic downturn from new negotiations with vendors to intelligent avoiding of travel.
www.vder-service.de