The President

The President is the chairman of the Chamber Assembly and the Board. He functions in the role of employer with regard to the Chamber's employees and is at the same time senior supervisor and the highest authority for the civil servants who work in the Chamber.

The President is elected by the Chamber Assembly for a three-year period. His main occupation must be in agriculture.

Since 10 February 2015, the post of President of the Chamber of Agriculture Lower Saxony has been occupied by Gerhard Schwetje. He is a professional agriculturalist and runs an arable farm with cereal und sugar beet production in Cramme (district of Wolfenbüttel). His involvement with the Chamber goes back over many years in various committees of the Chambers in Hanover and Lower Saxony. At least he was the deputy to the Chamber President since 2009.

The deputies to the Chamber President are dairy farmer Manfred Tannen from Bensersiel (district of Wittmund/East Frisia) and works council chairwoman Dagmar Heyens from Saterland (district of Cloppenburg).

As a professional agriculturalist, Manfred Tannen runs a dairy farm with about 200 milk cows near the North Sea coast in Bensersiel (Wittmund/ East Frisia). He has been a member of the Chamber Assembly Lower Saxony since 2015. Like President Schwetje, Tannen represents the interests of the entrepreneurs of the green sector.

Dagmar Heyens is engaged as works council chairwoman in one of the largest turkey breeding businesses in Europe in the village of Bösel (district of Cloppenburg). She has been a member of the Chamber Assembly Lower Saxony since 2019. Heyens represents the about 100.000 employees working in agriculture in Lower Saxony.

Under the constitution, the Chamber President and a representative are members of voting group 1 (entrepreneurs) and the other representative is part of voting group 2 (employees).