Bayer Max Thümmel as new group general counsel
Bayer has appointed Max Thümmel (pictured) as its new Group General Counsel, effective July 1. He succeeds Thomas Laubert, who left the company at the end of March.
In addition to the general counsel position, Thümmel will head Bayer’s Law, Patents and Compliance organization and will report directly to chief financial officer Judith Hartmann. In his new role, he will oversee the company’s global legal function, including compliance, data protection, intellectual property and insurance matters.
The appointment comes as Bayer continues to navigate several high-profile legal issues and sees the company entrust one of its leading litigation experts with responsibility for its worldwide legal affairs. Most recently, Thümmel has served as vice president and head of global litigation, based in Leverkusen, where he has led the German team since October 2024.
A Bayer veteran, Thümmel joined the group in 2016 and has held a number of senior legal positions across its corporate, pharmaceuticals and crop science businesses, working from Germany and the United States. Throughout his career within the company, he has focused on litigation and arbitration, commercial and corporate law, M&A and pharmaceutical law.
Before joining Bayer, he spent three years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, practising in the dispute resolution team.
Alongside his corporate responsibilities, Thümmel serves on the European Advisory Board of the CPR Institute and holds board positions at the Bayer Foundation for German and International Labour and Business Law and the German Arbitration Institute (DIS).
