Bernd Habbel has taken over as head of press and public relations at Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg. He is replacing Renate Sockolowsky, who has chosen to move to Australia after 10 years with the company. Habbel joined Lufthansa in 1986 as employee information editor in its group communications department in Frankfurt. In 1992 he was appointed executive director of corporate internal communications. He is married and has a daughter.