Bertelsmann, an international media enterprise, will for the first time appoint an executive to its board responsible for the Group’s content strategy. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz (51), currently CEO of Luxembourg-based CLT-UFA, Europe’s largest TV corporation, is to join Bertelsmann’s Executive Board as its eighth member. The Supervisory Board’s Personnel Committee approved the proposal submitted by the CEO, which will be presented to the Supervisory Board’s March plenary session. With the nomination of its first Chief Creative Officer, Bertelsmann is taking a step to increase its appeal for entrepreneurial and creative talent.

The Content Officer-elect is intended to represent the interests of authors, journalists, musicians and producers on the company’s Executive Board. According to Bertelsmann's press release, "he will tap into new possibilities in content generation and networking as well as securing rights, acting as partner to the organization’s creative and programming departments. Championing the discovery, fostering and securing of talents, he will systematically seek out new talent, trends, markets, business fields and forms of creative expression and promote new creative approaches to collaborate and establish new companies - also with a view to listing them."

With nearly 65,000 employees, Bertelsmann AG has operations in 53 countries, with the majority in the United States and Europe. Bertelsmann imprints include Ballantine Publishing Group, Bantam Books, Dell Publishing, Doubleday and Random House. Bertelsmann also owns radio, television, music and film production firms as well as holding 50% of AOL CompuServe Europe and 40% of barnesandnoble.com.

Posted February-23-2000