Born in 1979 in Northern Germany, Dr. Jennifer Cords has lived, studied and worked in Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Canada.

In her early career Jennifer worked to promote Northern Germany’s economic landscape (especially car, meat and retail industry) in Hannover, Berlin and Brussels. She officially toured Canada and the US seeking matching investors for Germany in 2010, working with embassies, Ministries of Economy, the Goethe Institute and Rotary International.

That year she joined Imperial Brands, the fourth-largest tobacco company in the world, promoting the concept of tax-free shopping internationally. She is an expert for all designated duty free areas such as airports, border stores, military, airlines, diplomatic stores, ferries and cruises. In 2012 her scope widened to include Corporate Affairs, overseeing business compliance and Imperial’s global export business.

In September 2018 Jennifer joined Gebr. Heinemann as Director Corporate Affairs & Compliance. In this role, Jennifer reports directly to CEO Max Heinemann and heads up internal and external communications as well as compliance, regulatory risk management and all corporate responsibility issues, including the global UN-reporting of the company.

Jennifer also represents the interests of travel retail in various associations, and serves as Vice President Regulatory Affairs of the European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC). In this role she creates dialogue about the value travel retail brings to the travel industry, such as passenger rights, a secure supply chain, non-aeronautical revenue, freedom of choice and the free movement of goods and people.