We support sensible and pragmatic Corporate Governance principles and recognise their central importance in guiding our activities. The principles of responsible and good enterprise management constitute the core of our Corporate Governance principles (www.hannover-rueck.de/resources/cc/generic/CGprinciples-e.pdf). Our efforts are intended to ensure integrity at all times in our dealings with business partners, staff, shareholders and other stakeholder groups. On this basis Hannover Re supports the principles of value-based and transparent enterprise management and supervision as defined in the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK). This is not contradicted by the fact that for the first time in the year under review we did not comply with three recommendations of the Code, since a well justified deviation from the recommendations of the Code may – as in the present case – be in the interests of good corporate governance (cf. Foreword to the DCKG). Based on what is still a high degree of fulfilment of the recommendations and suggestions of the DCGK, Hannover Re continues to rank very highly among the companies listed on the DAX and MDAX.

In 2010 the Supervisory Board had set out in its Rules of Procedure the goal of increasing the number of women on the Supervisory Board to at least two (at the time no women were represented on the body). This goal was accomplished in 2012. In the middle of the year a concept designed to promote the advancement of women was adopted for the company’s workforce and brought to the attention of the Supervisory Board. Through a variety of measures the company is seeking to do more to foster promising young female professionals and to enlarge the proportion of women in management positions. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board also considered at length the issue of sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. Hannover Re’s strategic orientation towards sustainability forms a key element of its corporate strategy. The aim here is to achieve commercial success on the basis of a solid business model in accordance with the needs of our staff and the company as well as with an eye to protecting the environment and conserving natural resources. We strive to reduce as far as possible the greenhouse gas emissions produced by our day-to-day business activities in order to come closer to reaching our goal of carbon neutrality. In so doing, we are demonstrably taking responsibility for a sustainable future. In 2011 we defined for the first time a concrete Sustainability Strategy setting out our primary objectives in this field. Not only that, for the first time in the year under review we also presented a Sustainability Report and an initial so-called “GRI Report”. Further information on the topic of sustainability is provided on our website (www.hannover-re.com/sustainability/index.html).