The
Board

Thomas Rabe, born in 1965, holds a diploma and a doctorate in economics from the University of Cologne, Germany. He started his career in 1989 at the European Commission in Brussels. From 1990 to 1996 he held various senior positions at Forrester Norall & Sutton (now White & Case) in Brussels, the state privatisation agency Treuhandanstalt, and a venture capital fund in Berlin. In 1996, he joined Cedel International (now Clearstream), where he was appointed CFO and member of the Management Board in 1998.

In 2000, Thomas Rabe became CFO and member of the Executive Committee of RTL Group. In March 2003, he was also appointed Head of the Corporate Centre. With effect from 1 January 2006, Thomas Rabe was appointed to the Executive Board of Bertelsmann AG as the Group’s CFO. From 2006 to 2008, he was also responsible for Bertelsmann AG’s music business.

Since 1 January 2012, Thomas Rabe has been CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Bertelsmann.

In May 2019, Thomas Rabe was appointed member of the Supervisory Board of Adidas AG and has served as Chairman since 11 August 2020.

On 1 April 2019, Thomas Rabe was appointed CEO of RTL Group. From August 2022 until December 2023, he was Chairman of the Management Board of RTL Deutschland.

Elmar Heggen, born in 1968, holds a diploma in business administration from the European Business School Oestrich-Winkel, and graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance.

In 1992, he started his career at the Felix Schoeller Group, becoming Vice President and General Manager of Felix Schoeller Digital Imaging in the UK in 1999. Elmar Heggen first joined the RTL Group Corporate Centre in 2000 as Vice President Mergers and Acquisitions.

In January 2003, he was promoted to Senior Vice President Controlling and Investments. From July 2003 until December 2005, he was Executive Vice President Strategy and Controlling.

Elmar Heggen has served on the RTL Group Executive Management Team since January 2006, and been CFO and Head of the Corporate Centre of RTL Group since 1 October 2006.

In January 2018, he was appointed Deputy CEO of RTL Group, in addition to his role as CFO.

Since August 2019, Elmar Heggen has been Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO of RTL Group.

Björn Bauer graduated in business administration in 2005 from the European Business School (Oestrich-Winkel, Germany).

In 2005, he started his career at the international management consultancy Arthur D. Little and then joined Bertelsmann in 2007, where he held successive positions in Corporate Controlling and Strategy.

In February 2015, Björn Bauer was appointed Head of M&A at the online learning provider Relias in Cary, North Carolina, which Bertelsmann had acquired in November 2014. In September 2015, he was appointed CFO of Relias. After nearly four years in the United States, he returned to Gütersloh in January 2019 as Bertelsmann’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Controlling and Strategy.

In August 2019, he was appointed CFO of RTL Group.

Martin Taylor, born in 1952, began his career as a financial journalist with Reuters and the Financial Times. He then joined Courtaulds PLC, becoming a director in 1987, then Chief Executive of Courtaulds Textiles PLC on its demerger in 1990. He moved to Barclays PLC in 1993 as Chief Executive, a post he held until the end of 1998. From 1999 to 2003, he was Chairman of WHSmith PLC, and from 1999 to 2005, International Advisor to Goldman Sachs. From 2005 until 2013, he was Chairman of the Board of Syngenta AG.

From 2013 until March 2020, Martin Taylor served as an external member of the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England.

He has worked on various projects for the British Government and served for five years as a member of its Council for Science and Technology. Appointed as Independent Non-Executive Director in July 2000 (when RTL Group was created), Martin Taylor took over the responsibilities of Vice-Chairman of the Board in December 2004.

On 1 April 2019, Martin Taylor was appointed Chairman of the RTL Group Board of Directors.

Jean-Louis Schiltz, born in 1964, holds a post-graduate degree (DEA) in business law from the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. He also taught at his alma mater in the early 1990s.

From 2004 to 2009, Jean-Louis Schiltz was a cabinet minister in Luxembourg. His portfolios included media, telecommunications, technology (IT and internet in particular), international development, and defence.

Jean-Louis Schiltz is a tech law advisor, a senior partner at Schiltz & Schiltz (avocats) and a professor (hon.) at the University of Luxembourg. His work focuses on technology, regulatory, mergers and acquisitions, and finance. He is a regular speaker at tech law conferences and has authored and co-authored a number of articles and reports in this field.

Jean-Louis Schiltz serves on the boards of a limited number of other companies.

With effect from 27 April 2022, Jean-Louis Schiltz was appointed Vice-Chairman of the RTL Group Board of Directors.

Carsten Coesfeld, born in 1987, earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He started his career in the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in London in October 2009.

In 2011, he began his tenure at Bertelsmann as a management associate for the Chief Executive Officer. In 2012, he moved to New York City to join Penguin Random House, where he held a variety of business development and strategy roles throughout the globally active book publishing group.

At the beginning of 2016, Carsten Coesfeld was appointed President Telecommunications and Managing Director at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions. Together with his team, he transformed the business by partnering with leading, high-growth technology companies.

Carsten Coesfeld became CEO of the London-based global nonfiction publisher Dorling Kindersley (DK) in March 2020, where he focused on DK’s online channel, pursued collaborations with sister publishers, and ended the 2021 financial year with record results.

On 1 June 2022, Carsten Coesfeld was named CEO of Bertelsmann Investments.

In November 2023, Carsten Coesfeld was appointed to the Bertelsmann Executive Board with effect from 1 January 2024.

Pernille Erenbjerg, born in 1967, was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director to RTL Group’s Board of Directors on 28 April 2021.

Pernille Erenbjerg graduated from the Copenhagen Business School with a Master of Science in Economics. She started her career at Arthur Andersen as Auditor and Consultant and later joined Deloitte as Equity Partner.

From 2003 to 2018, Pernille Erenbjerg held several positions at Denmark’s largest telecommunications company, TDC Group, most recently as Group CEO and President, and before that as Group CFO and Deputy CEO.

As well as being a Non-Executive Director for RTL Group, she is Deputy Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee at Millicom, and Deputy Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Audit and Finance Committee, and member of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee at Genmab.

Pernille Erenbjerg was previously Chairman of the Board of Viaplay Group (until 12 July 2023) and Non-Executive Director at Nordea, DFDS, and the Royal Danish Theatre.

On 10 January 2024, Pernille Erenbjerg was appointed Chairman of KK Wind Solutions’ Board of Directors.

Thomas Götz, born in 1971, graduated from the University of Bayreuth with a doctorate in law in 1999. A year earlier, during his studies, he joined Bertelsmann’s Corporate Legal department as an in-house lawyer.

From 2009 to 2013, he was Co-Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Bertelsmann. Prior to this, he worked for two years as Senior Vice President Mergers and Acquisitions.

Thomas Götz has been General Counsel at Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA since January 2014.

Rolf Hellermann, born in 1976, studied business administration in Vallendar, Los Angeles, and Nancy, and received his doctorate from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar. He started working at the Bertelsmann Corporate Centre directly afterwards, in 2004.

In 2012, Rolf Hellermann became head of Bertelsmann’s Corporate Controlling and Strategy department.

From 2015 until 2018 he was CFO of Arvato, the services division of Bertelsmann. He served as CEO of Arvato Financial Solutions from November 2018 until December 2020 and has been a member of Bertelsmann’s Group Management Committee since January 2019.

He also heads the Bertelsmann Tech and Data Advisory Board, which advises the Executive Board on technology issues and advances Bertelsmann’s evolution into a leading global media, services, and education company in tech.

Rolf Hellermann was appointed CFO and member of the Board at Bertelsmann Management SE on 1 January 2021.

He previously served as a non-executive member of RTL Group's Board of Directors from August 2015 to December 2018.

Immanuel Hermreck, born in 1969, has been Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Executive Board at Bertelsmann Management SE since 2015. His responsibilities include the worldwide leadership of Bertelsmann’s HR function, with particular attention to executive development, organisational learning and education, compensation, HR strategy, services, corporate responsibility and corporate culture.

Immanuel Hermreck was appointed Global Head of HR for Bertelsmann in 2006. Before this, he was Director of the Media Economics Department at the Bertelsmann Foundation, and became Managing Director of Bertelsmann University – the company’s global knowledge and learning institution – in 2000.

Immanuel Hermreck volunteers as a member or trustee of several non-profit organisations, including as a founding Executive Committee member of the German Association of HR Managers.

He holds a PhD in communication and economics, and is both a Stanford University graduate and a former scholar of the prestigious Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.

Guillaume de Posch, born in 1958, started his career at the international energy and services company Tractebel (1985 to 1990) and then joined the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company (1990 to 1993).

He began working in the media industry at the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) as assistant to the Managing Director (1993 to 1994) before becoming Head of CLT’s TV operations in French-speaking countries (1995 to 1997). From 1997 to 2003, he was Deputy General Manager and Programming Director of the French pay-TV company TPS, before joining the publicly listed ProSiebenSat1 Media AG in August 2003, first as Chief Operating Officer and then as Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO (2004 to 2008).

Guillaume de Posch was appointed Chief Operating Officer and member of the RTL Group Executive Committee on 1 January 2012.

With effect from 18 April 2012, Guillaume de Posch assumed the role of Co-CEO of RTL Group. In January 2018, he stepped down as Co-CEO and has since served as a non-executive member of RTL Group’s Board of Directors.

Guillaume de Posch served as President of the ACT (Association of Commercial Television) in Europe from 2017 to 2023.

Alexander von Torklus, born in 1979, studied and earned his doctorate at Freie Universität Berlin, before starting his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2003.

From there, he moved to Arvato in October 2006. As Director Corporate Controlling and Consulting, his responsibilities included international investment controlling. In September 2009, he was appointed Senior Vice President Corporate Controlling and Consulting. In this role, he was responsible for various M&A projects, strategic topics, and controlling. In October 2015, Alexander von Torklus became CFO of Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, where he led a team of 500 employees and was responsible for the Finance, Strategy, and Purchasing Departments.

On 1 January 2023, he was appointed Executive Vice President Corporate Controlling and Strategy at Bertelsmann.

Bettina Wulf, born in 1962, has been a member of the Corporate Legal Department at Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA since July 1993. Prior to this she worked as an in-house lawyer for an international IT company, with a particular focus on global mergers and acquisitions.

Bettina Wulf graduated from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, with a degree in law in 1988. In 2014, she was honoured by the International Law Office with the European Counsel Award for her prominent role in highly complex merger and acquisition transactions requiring level-headed negotiation skills.

Lauren Zalaznick, born in 1963, has devoted her career in media to transforming the cultural landscape. She has been responsible for the growth of some of the strongest TV and digital brands in media and is widely recognised as an industry shape-shifter and innovator, and has received many honours for her achievements.

Currently, she serves as a strategic adviser to leading digital and media brands. She began her career making independent feature films, transitioning to a career in television. Her most recent corporate role was as Executive Vice President, Comcast NBC Universal, where she was responsible for a large portfolio overseeing brands such as Bravo, Oxygen, Telemundo, and Fandango.

Aside from many Emmy, BDA, Webby, and Peabody Award nominations and wins, Zalaznick has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, has delivered a TED Talk with close to a million views, and has been the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story.

Lauren Zalaznick is currently Chairman of the Board of National CineMedia Inc. and is a director of GoPro Inc. She is also a Trustee Emerita of Brown University, from which she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.