Corporate Governance

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, which were extensively revised in the year under review (www.hannover-re.com/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). The Supervisory Board, Executive Board and employees of Hannover Rück SE identify with these principles, which are aligned with the German Corporate Governance Code. The Executive Board ensures that the principles are observed Group-wide.

This is not contradicted by the fact that in the year under review we again did not comply with some 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 and in 2013 – with three female members of the Supervisory Board – it was actually surpassed. In addition, for the first time one of the members of the Supervisory Board’s Nomination Committee is a woman. The Supervisory Board again considered the concept for the advancement of women that had been implemented in 2012 and was informed of the progress that had been made. The primary objective of this concept is to foster promising young female professionals through a variety of measures and to enlarge the proportion of women in management positions. Considerable energy was once again devoted to the issue of sustainability. 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, in the year under review we again presented our Sustainability Report in the form of a so-called “GRI Report”. Further information on the topic of sustainability is provided on our website (www.hannover-re.com/sustainability/index.html).