A little younger, a little more feminine
Springer restructures the board
4/10/2022 5:24 am
After the purchase of “Politico”, Axel Springer is increasingly focusing on the USA. A member of the management floor should be present there in the future. In addition, the board of directors of the Berlin media house is being restructured – and is getting bigger again.
The media group Axel Springer is expanding its board of directors from four to five members. The manager Ulrike Handel is new to the committee as responsible for the national media business with the brands “Bild” and “Welt” as well as Niddal Salah-Eldin for the new area “Talent & Culture”, as the media group announced. Salah-Eldin is currently in a leading position at Springer and is responsible for the in-house academy, which combines the training of journalists and tech talents, and was previously deputy editor-in-chief at dpa from 2019 to 2021.
The previous board member Stephanie Caspar, who is responsible for the Internet classifieds segment, is also leaving the company on July 31 “by mutual agreement,” as Springer said. The classifieds business department is to be redesigned after a possible IPO of the online job portal Stepstone.
With the new members, the Management Board will continue to consist of CEO Mathias Döpfner and Jan Bayer, who will be appointed as deputy on July 1 and will drive US business, and Julian Deutz, who will be responsible for finance and human resources.
US market in sight
According to the announcement, Springer’s Supervisory Board Chairman, Ralph Büchi, said: “With the expansion of the Management Board, Axel Springer can continue on its successful growth course following the last acquisitions in the USA.” Springer CEO Döpfner added: “I’m looking forward to the next phase of the company’s development with an expanded and younger Executive Board.” Recently it became known that after the purchase of US media brands, including the important brand “Politico”, Springer is focusing on the USA with a restructuring of the board. Springer called the deal in October 2021 its largest company takeover in the company’s history. Bayer will be active in the USA for at least a year starting in the summer. So far he has been responsible for all media brands – both nationally and internationally.
Springer wants to grow faster in its digital business and entered into a strategic partnership with the US financial investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 2019. Springer, with its headquarters in Berlin and around 16,000 employees worldwide, also withdrew from the stock exchange in 2020. Parts of the newly created “Talent & Culture” board department, which Salah-Eldin will be responsible for in the future, were previously Deutz’s area of responsibility. According to Springer, the new layout should bring these topics even more into focus than before. The different cultural challenges in the various areas of the company and all other people-related issues are given the highest priority.
As a board member, Salah-Eldin will continue to be responsible as Managing Director and Chair of the Managing Board of FreeTech – Axel Springer Academy of Journalism and Technology. The 36-year-old had already worked for Springer before becoming Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Head of Innovation and Product at the German Press Agency (dpa). Between 2014 and 2019, she headed the social media and digital innovation department at the media brand Welt. The trading manager also worked for Springer for several years. Between 2000 and 2011 she held various management positions, including being a member of the publishing management of the Welt Group. This was followed by positions at marketing companies.