Pro7Sat.1 shuffles management
February 21, 2019
By Chris Forrester
It is all change at Germany’s commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1. Following press forecasts of management departures, the company confirmed a reshuffle.
Jan Kempner the CFO is departing reportedly on stark differences of view with new CEO, Max Conze. He will be replaced as CFO by Rainer Beaujean, currently CFO of listed packaging manufacturer Gerresheimer.
Sales and marketing chief Sabina Eckhardt is leaving the company and its Entertainment arm to be split off as a standalone company under co-CEOs Wolfgang Link and Michaela Tod, hired from vacuum cleaner maker Dyson.
The broadcaster’s ‘three pillars’ of Entertainment, production and distribution subsidiary Red Arrow Studios, and non-TV activities unit NuCom Group, will each be led by two co-CEOs going forwards. The parent company will establish a new executive committee in April .
ProSiebenSat.1 chairman Werner Brandt said the new structure was a “logical continuation” of the existing three-pillar strategy, giving more independence to the group’s operational businesses to help the transformation of the group’s business model.
The changes weren’t universally welcomed, Laurie Davison, equity analyst at Deutsche Bank, in his snappy headline described the changes as “Unpleasantness in Unterföhring.”