Thielen Chairs Bertelsmann Supervisory Board

Former Bertelsmann AG chairman and chief exec Gunter Thielen has been elected chairman of the German media giant’s supervisory board.

He succeeds Dieter Vogel, who stepped down after 11 years as chairman at the end of 2007.

Thielen, who was 65 in August, retired as Bertelesmann’s chairman and chief exec at the beginning of 2007, when he was replaced by Hartmut Ostrowski.

Ostrowski had headed Bertelsmann’s Arvato and led it to become a leading international media and communications services provider with 47,000 employees in 37 countries.

When Thielen stepped down, many European business writers suggested that he would eventually move over to head the supervisory board.

As part of the agreed-upon further separation of shareholder and corporate interests, Thielen left the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG), which unites all the voting rights in Bertelsmann AG, at the end of 2007. His successor as BVG shareholder will be elected at the next BVG shareholder meeting.

Willi Pfannkuche, longtime works council chairman at Mohn Media and one of the four employee representatives on the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board, also left at the end of the year, takeing early retirement.

His successor on the supervisory board will be elected by Bertelsmann AG’s regular Annual General Meeting in April 2008, following a nomination procedure.