RTL co-CEO steps down

The co-CEO of Germany’s RTL Group has stepped down to be replaced by a senior executive from RTL Nederland in a surprise move today.

Anke Schäferkordt

Anke Schäferkordt will be succeeded by Bert Habets as co-CEO of RTL Group alongside Guillaume de Posch.

Schäferkordt will remain head of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, the group’s biggest business unit and primary revenue engine, which she has led since 2005.

RTL Group said Schäferkordt would leave the company’s board of directors and executive committee at her own request on 19 April, the day of the group’s annual general meeting.

Habets will join de Posch and chief financial officer Elmar Heggen on the executive committee and board of directors as executive director on the same day. He will remain CEO of RTL Nederland for the time being, with the group expected to announce a new CEO of the Dutch unit before the end of the year.

Bertelsmann CEO and RTL Group chairman Thomas Rabe described Habet as “a strong leader and digitally savvy media entrepreneur” who had “transformed RTL Nederland from a traditional broadcaster into a media company which entertains its audience across all digital platforms” and who embodied RTL Group’s “total video strategy.”

Rabe praised Schäferkordt for “her outstanding entrepreneurial performance at the head of RTL Group,” adding that she had contributed to “making RTL Group more digital, more international and faster growing.”

Commenting on her decision, Schäferkordt said now was the right time for her “to focus fully on further advancing our German TV and digital operations and contributing to the strategic development of Bertelsmann.”