Hans-Jürgen Matern is the Vice President of Corporate Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs at METRO GROUP. From 1981 – 1989, he was responsible for Research & Development / Quality Assurance at Quaker Oats and Royal Canin in Germany. In 1990, he joined Metro Germany to set up Quality Assurance (QA) for the food business in Germany. In the following years, he developed QA in METRO to an international department, covering the whole food and non-food business and assuring fulfilment of legal and company requirements in the stores. As of January 2011, he took over the representation of METRO GROUP in international committees concerning healthy nutrition and environmentally friendly production of safe products. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Food Safety Initiative.