Media group
Ex-Springer executive board becomes head of the ProSiebenSat.1 supervisory board
Former Axel Springer Executive Board member Andreas Wiele is to head the ProSiebenSat.1 Supervisory Board. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters Images Europe / Pool / dpa
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The media group ProSiebenSat.1 is getting a new head of the supervisory board. The idea is for a manager who made a career in another powerful media group.
Former Springer board member Andreas Wiele (59) is to become the new head of the supervisory board of the media group ProSiebenSat.1. This was announced by the TV company in Unterföhring near Munich.
The Annual General Meeting is planned for May 5, 2022, at which elections will take place. The incumbent chairman of the supervisory board, Werner Brandt (67), is no longer running after two terms in office.
Wiele worked for the Axel Springer media group in Berlin (“Bild”, “Welt”) for decades. In 2020, after almost 20 years, he gave up his management board mandate and left the group. Since 2000 he has been responsible for numerous departments as a member of the Springer board. Most recently, he was the board member for the Classifieds Media segment – i.e. Internet classifieds business. Wiele then switched to the US financial investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). He entered into a partnership with Springer in 2019 and became a major investor. The group withdrew from the stock exchange, the common goal: to grow faster in digital businesses.
Wiele active as a company founder and consultant
ProSiebenSat.1 also told Wiele that he had been a founder of the company since he left Springer and had worked for KKR as a senior advisor for KKR’s global tech / media and telecommunications business.
KKR has also held shares in the media group ProSiebenSat.1 since 2020, but sold the major part in 2021. KKR had already been active at ProSiebenSat.1 years ago and had temporarily held shares.
Wiele will be court-appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board from mid-February, according to ProSiebenSat.1. He succeeds Adam Cahan, who has resigned from office. At the general meeting, Wiele should then be promoted to head of the board.
Speculation about top manager Beaujean
The supervisory board also gave the group’s top manager Rainer Beaujean tailwind: The 53-year-old will be extended by five years with effect from July 1, 2022, as it was said. “With this contract extension, he is appointed CEO.” Beaujean is currently the board spokesman.
Speculations about Beaujean last arose in November. Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and the sole major shareholder of ProSiebenSat.1 with almost 24 percent of the shares, is said to be dissatisfied with Beaujean, according to a report by the business magazine “Business Insider”: Berlusconi does not want to extend the broadcaster’s contract, which expires in June, and has three positions on the supervisory board occupy with his people, reported the magazine. Berlusconi’s Mediaset Group wants to set up a European media holding company. Beaujean considers such a merger to be pointless and at ProSiebenSat.1 relies heavily on local shows, infotainment and sporting events.
At the time, ProSiebenSat.1 supervisory board chairman Werner Brandt immediately made it clear: “The supervisory board fully supports the management board and the strategy of ProSiebenSat.1. We are very satisfied with the development of the company since Rainer Beaujean and his team have been running the company in March 2020. “