Changes to Bertelsmann Board

The Mohn family, which owns the giant conglomerate (and parent company of Random House) Bertelsmann, has implemented some changes to its supervisory board. A Bertelsmann spokesman confirmed to Scott Roxbrough Wednesday that changes to the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG), the holding company that controls 100% of voting shares in Bertelsmann AG, will see the BVG board reduced from eight members to six, with three coming from the Mohn family – this giving them a greater say in the company’s operation. Family patriarch Reinhard Mohn, his wife Liz and their daughter Brigitte will remain on the BVG board while son Christoph Mohn will step down from the board along with Erich Ruppik, head of Bertelsmann’s workers council.

Bertelsmann CEO Gunter Thielen, a Mohn confidant who moves from the CEO job to become chairman of Bertelsmann’s supervisory board in January 2008, will stay on the BVG board, as will Bertelsmann supervisory board chairman Dieter Vogel, who resigns from that post at the end of this year, and Vogel’s deputy chairman on the supervisory board, Juergen Strube. But Theilen’s successor as CEO, Hartmut Ostrowski, will not have a say in the holding company.

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