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Last updated: 14 July 2026
The protection of your personal data is a core priority for NELEX AG (hereinafter "NELEX", "we", "us") – not only because the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires it, but because confidentiality is the foundation of our work as an executive search consultancy. This privacy policy informs you which personal data we collect when you visit our website, for what purposes we use it, on what legal basis, and what rights you have.
This policy applies to the use of our website. For the handling of data of candidates in the context of our executive search activities, our separate "Privacy Information for Candidates" applies in addition.
Controller within the meaning of the GDPR is NELEX AG, Kranhaus 1 – Im Zollhafen 18, D-50678 Cologne, Germany, phone: +49 (0) 221-170 42 140, email: datenschutz@nelex.ag.
You can reach our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Wolfgang Rothe, at the same email address or by post at our business address, marked "Attn: Data Protection Officer.
Legal bases at a glance: Depending on the purpose of processing, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), where you have actively agreed, for example to the use of certain cookies or marketing tools – you may withdraw such consent at any time with effect for the future; pre-contractual measures and contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), where you contact us via our contact form, for example in connection with a possible advisory mandate or a candidate inquiry; legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR), where we are subject to legal requirements that oblige us to process your data, e.g. under commercial or tax retention obligations; and legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), where we have a legitimate interest in the processing and your interests do not override that interest in the individual case, e.g. when responding to general inquiries or ensuring the IT security of our website. For each processing activity described below, we specify the legal basis that applies.
When you access our website, our hosting provider automatically collects technical access data transmitted by your browser, including the IP address (generally stored in shortened/anonymized form), date and time of the request, name and URL of the file accessed, the website from which access occurred (referrer URL), and the browser used and, where applicable, the operating system of your device. This serves to ensure a stable connection, system security, and error analysis. Legal basis is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in the technically secure and stable provision of our website. There is no fixed statutory retention period for server log files; they are deleted as soon as they are no longer required to ensure system security, but no later than after 7 days, unless a security-related incident requires longer retention for evidentiary purposes.
Our website is hosted by Mittwald CM Service GmbH & Co. KG, Königsberger Straße 4–6, 32339 Espelkamp, Germany. We have entered into a data processing agreement with this provider pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
If you contact us via our contact form or by email, we process the information you provide, such as name, email address, phone number, and message content, to process your inquiry and communicate with you. Legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures), where your inquiry relates to the initiation of a mandate or cooperation, or otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in responding to inquiries). Your information is stored until the purpose of the inquiry no longer applies, e.g. once your inquiry has been fully processed, you object to the storage, or you withdraw your consent. At the latest, we delete the data upon expiry of the general civil-law limitation period of three years (Section 195 BGB) following the year of the last contact, unless the inquiry gives rise to longer commercial or tax-law retention obligations (e.g. 6 or 10 years under Section 257 HGB or Section 147 AO for business-related correspondence).
If you contact us via the website as a (prospective) candidate, send us your CV or other application documents, or submit a candidate profile, our separate Privacy Information for Candidates applies in addition. There we explain in particular how we handle sensitive information, disclosure to clients, and retention periods in the recruitment context.
We only use the contact form described above and the marketing service Dealfront/Leadfeeder described below on our website. We do not currently use any other analytics, tracking, or marketing tools.
Dealfront / Leadfeeder.We use the Leadfeeder service provided by Dealfront Group Oy, Mikonkatu 17 C, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. Leadfeeder is used not only for web analytics but, in particular, for identifying company visits to our website and generating business leads for our sales and advisory activities. For this purpose, We use the Leadfeeder service provided by Dealfront Group Oy, Mikonkatu 17 C, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. Leadfeeder is used not only for web analytics but, in particular, for identifying company visits to our website and generating business leads for our sales and advisory activities. For this purpose, information about your visit is processed, in particular the IP address, pages visited, time of the visit, and duration of the visit. According to the provider, the IP address is anonymized/shortened at the earliest possible stage, so that a direct inference to a natural person is generally not possible. The information collected may be supplemented with publicly available company data, such as industry or company location. Purpose: Marketing – identification of company visitors and lead generation. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR in conjunction with Section 25(1) TDDDG (consent). Retention period: According to the provider, the cookies used for recognition remain active for up to 12 months; the visit data collected is retained, according to the provider, for the duration of the business relationship or up to 12 months after the last recorded visit. You may withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future via our cookie notice.
Should we implement additional tools in the future, we will update this privacy policy accordingly with information on the provider, purpose, legal basis, and retention period before the respective service is put into use.
Cookie consent: To store your cookie settings, we use a strictly necessary cookie. This cookie is required to save your selection and to avoid showing you the cookie notice again on every page visit. The legal basis is Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG in conjunction with Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
In addition, we use – only with your consent – the Leadfeeder cookie described above under "Tools and Services Used on Our Website". Via our cookie notice, you can view, adjust, or withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
We only disclose your personal data to processors, such as our hosting provider and the provider of the tool named above, with whom we have each entered into a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR and who may only process your data on our instructions and for the agreed purposes; to competent authorities, insofar as we are legally required to do so (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR); and to clients or business partners in connection with candidate inquiries, exclusively in accordance with the principles set out in our Privacy Information for Candidates, and generally only with the separate consent of the data subject.
A transfer to countries outside the EU/European Economic Area only takes place insofar as this is necessary for the operation of the tool named above, and only where an adequate level of data protection is ensured, for example through an adequacy decision of the European Commission or EU Standard Contractual Clauses pursuant to Art. 46 GDPR.
We only store personal data for as long as is necessary for the respective processing purpose, as long as a statutory retention obligation applies, e.g. commercial and tax-law periods of up to 10 years for certain business records, or until you have objected to further processing or withdrawn your consent. Specific retention periods are stated above for each processing activity, or will be added when a new tool is introduced.
Subject to the statutory requirements, you have a right of access (Art. 15 GDPR) to the data we process about you, a right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR) of inaccurate or incomplete data, a right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), unless statutory retention obligations apply, a right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), a right to object (Art. 21 GDPR) to processing based on legitimate interests, as well as at any time to processing for direct marketing purposes, a right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) for data you have provided to us and which we process by automated means, and a right to withdraw consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR) with effect for the future. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact details above. For your protection, we may require proof of your identity before processing your request.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority regarding our processing of your personal data. The competent authority for NELEX AG is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW), Postfach 20 04 44, 40102 Düsseldorf, Germany, phone: +49 211 38424-0, email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de.
We implement technical and organizational measures to protect your data against manipulation, loss, destruction, or unauthorized access, for example through encryption of data transmission using TLS/SSL. Complete security of data transmitted over the internet cannot be technically guaranteed; we continuously adapt our security measures to the state of the art.
We update this privacy policy whenever our data processing, the tools we use, or the legal situation changes. The version published on our website at any given time shall apply.
If you have any questions about data protection or wish to exercise your rights, please contact NELEX AG, Attn: Data Protection Officer, Kranhaus 1 – Im Zollhafen 18, D-50678 Cologne, Germany, email: datenschutz@nelex.ag, phone: +49 (0) 221-170 42 140.
Last updated: 14 July 2026
Discretion and confidentiality are of central importance to NELEX AG (hereinafter "NELEX", "we", "us") as an executive search consultancy. This privacy information explains, independently of our website, how we process personal data of (prospective) candidates in connection with our advisory activities. We act in accordance with the principles of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and treat sensitive information with particular care.
This information applies regardless of how you came into contact with us, and supplements any further specific notices we may provide to you in individual cases.
Controller is NELEX AG, Kranhaus 1 – Im Zollhafen 18, D-50678 Cologne, Germany, phone: +49 (0) 221-170 42 140, email: datenschutz@nelex.ag. You can reach our Data Protection Officer, Dr. Wolfgang Rothe, at the same email address.
We receive personal data from you in a variety of ways: through a direct or unsolicited application to NELEX, e.g. by email, contact form, or post; through contact initiated by you via professional networks such as LinkedIn or Xing, or via our website; through contact initiated by us in connection with a specific search mandate (direct approach/active sourcing), based on publicly available professional profiles or market research; through referrals by third parties, e.g. references or network contacts; through personal or telephone conversations with our consultants; or through transfer from third parties to whom you have previously provided your documents, e.g. other job portals, where this occurs lawfully.
Depending on the context, we may process the following categories of personal data in particular: contact data such as name, address, phone number, and email address; professional profile data such as career history, qualifications, competencies, salary expectations, and availability; application documents such as CV, references, certificates, cover letter, and, where applicable, a photo; and correspondence, i.e. content from emails, phone calls, and personal conversations with our consultants, insofar as relevant to assessing your suitability. We handle this information carefully and confidentially, and only collect the data that is necessary for the respective advisory or placement activity, or that you have voluntarily provided.
If you voluntarily provide us with information in your documents that falls within the special categories of personal data under Art. 9 GDPR, e.g. information on health, religious beliefs, or trade union membership, we only process this information where an appropriate legal basis applies, in particular your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR) or a statutory permission in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims (Art. 9(2)(f) GDPR).
We ask that you only share sensitive information with us that is genuinely necessary for assessing your suitability. We have implemented internal organizational measures to restrict access to sensitive data to those individuals who genuinely require it to process your matter.
We process your data to handle your application or profile and match it against suitable positions, based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures) or Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in accurate candidate matching); to approach you in connection with specific search mandates, based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; to coordinate meetings and appointments with clients, based on Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR; for internal documentation of the selection process, based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; and, where necessary, to comply with legal obligations, e.g. information requests from authorities, based on Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR.
Your personal data and application documents are generally only disclosed to a specific client after prior consultation and with your separate consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). If we wish to retain your profile beyond the specific position for future employment opportunities, we likewise obtain your consent for this or base it on our legitimate interest within the context of an existing advisory relationship.
Confidentiality and Disclosure of Your Data
We treat your data confidentially. Access is granted to authorized NELEX employees involved in handling your matter, to clients only with your prior consent in connection with a specific placement process, and to authorities where we are legally obliged to provide information. Where service providers outside the EU/EEA are involved in individual cases, we ensure that an adequate level of data protection exists, for example through EU Standard Contractual Clauses or a comparable safeguard under Art. 46 GDPR.
Because executive search mandates are often long-term in nature, and we may support candidates over many years and across different career stages, retaining your data can serve an ongoing purpose. We regularly review and update the data we hold to ensure it remains accurate and up to date, and we do not store your data for longer than is necessary for the respective purpose or as required by statutory retention obligations. If you object to further storage or withdraw your consent, we delete or anonymize your data, unless a statutory retention obligation applies.
As a standard deletion period: where there is no active consent for further retention of your profile and no ongoing candidate relationship, we delete your data no later than upon expiry of the general civil-law limitation period of three years (Section 195 BGB) following the year of the last contact. For documents related to a specific contractual or placement relationship, the commercial and tax-law retention periods of up to 6 years (Section 257 HGB) or 10 years (Section 147 AO) apply.
If your documents have been disclosed to a client as part of a mandate, that client is responsible, as an independent controller, for the data it holds and must inform you separately in this regard.
Subject to the statutory requirements, you have the following rights: a right of access to the data we hold about you (Art. 15 GDPR); a right to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data (Art. 16 GDPR); a right to erasure of your data (Art. 17 GDPR), unless statutory retention obligations apply; a right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR); a right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, as well as to the use of your data for marketing purposes (Art. 21 GDPR); a right to data portability for data you have provided to us (Art. 20 GDPR); and a right to withdraw consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR), e.g. regarding further retention of your profile or disclosure to clients. To prevent misuse, we may ask you to provide proof of your identity before processing your request.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The competent authority is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW), Postfach 20 04 44, 40102 Düsseldorf, Germany, phone: +49 211 38424-0, email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de.
As an employer and consultancy, equal opportunity is important to us. We treat all candidates equally, regardless of gender, marital status, ethnic origin, skin color, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or age. Where we evaluate information for diversity monitoring purposes, we generally do so on an anonymized or pseudonymized basis.
If you have questions about the processing of your personal data or wish to exercise your rights, please contact NELEX AG, Attn: Data Protection Officer, Kranhaus 1 – Im Zollhafen 18, D-50678 Cologne, Germany, email: datenschutz@nelex.ag, phone: +49 (0) 221-170 42 140. You may also contact your responsible consultant at NELEX directly.
We update this privacy information whenever our processing practices, the service providers we use, or the legal situation change. In the event of material changes, we will inform you, provided we have an email address on file for you.
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