New Co-CEO at RTL Group

Schäferkordt will leave the group’s board of directors and executive committee at her own request, effective from the annual general meeting on April 19. She will continue to be the CEO of the group’s largest business unit, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, which she has led since September 2005.

Thomas Rabe, the chairman of the RTL Group Board of Directors, said: “On behalf of the whole Board, I would like to thank Anke Schäferkordt for her outstanding entrepreneurial performance at the head of RTL Group. Together with her colleagues on the Executive Committee, she has succeeded in making RTL Group more digital, more international and faster growing. At the same time, she and her management team in Germany have continued the success story of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. While I regret her decision, I fully respect her reasons and I’m very happy that she will continue to lead and advance our largest business unit—and that she will continue to contribute her unique experience and expertise to the digital transformation of our Group.”

Rabe continued: “To a large extent, RTL Group’s long-lasting success is based on the quality, continuity and experience of its management team. I am delighted that we have found, in Bert Habets, a strong leader and digitally savvy media entrepreneur from within the group as new co-CEO of RTL Group. Since Bert Habets joined our group in 1999, he has proven his outstanding leadership and creative skills. He transformed RTL Nederland from a traditional broadcaster into a media company which entertains its audience across all digital platforms. Bert Habets embodies RTL Group’s total video strategy. I look forward to working with him, and wish him every success in his new position.”

Schäferkordt commented: “I would like to thank the whole management team at RTL Group, and above all Guillaume de Posch and Elmar Heggen, for the close and trustful collaboration over the past five years. From our comprehensive strategic review in 2012 to the IPO of RTL Group in Frankfurt/Main in 2013, and our push into online video and advertising technology, leading and re-positioning RTL Group has been a fantastic experience for me. Now is the right time for me to focus fully on further advancing our German TV and digital operations and contributing to the strategic development of Bertelsmann. I am very much looking forward to continuing the excellent collaboration with RTL Group’s well-established management team.”