Mark Woessner

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Mark Matthias Wössner (born October 14, 1938 in Berlin ) is a German manager . From 1983 to 1998, Wössner was CEO of Bertelsmann , based in Gütersloh . Among other things, he was a member of the supervisory board of Daimler and Loewe , chairman of the Deutsche Bank advisory group and a member of the executive committee of the Federation of German Industries ( BDI ). Since his retirement he has lived in Munich with his partner.

Life

After studying mechanical engineering in Karlsruhe and subsequent doctorate in Stuttgart , Wössner became an assistant to the management team at Bertelsmann at the age of 30 . In 1970 he became technical operations manager and in 1974 managing director of Europe's largest offset printing company, Mohndruck. In 1976 Wössner became a member of the Bertelsmann Executive Board, responsible for the Printing and Industrial Companies division. In 1983 he took over the chairmanship of the board.

During his time as CEO , the number of employees doubled. Bertelsmann's sales quadrupled, and the annual net income sevenfold. Wössner diversified the original book club business and systematically expanded Bertelsmann into one of the world's leading media companies, particularly through acquisitions in the USA: For example, he acquired the music company RCA Records and the publishing house Doubleday as well as the publishing group Random House , as well as the 1540 Broadway skyscraper on Times Square for Bertelsmann in New York. The entry into electronic media such as RTL and Premiere and the formation of the largest broadcasting group in Europe, the CLT- UFA , were also strategically important . In this way, Wössner developed Bertelsmann into the largest media group in the world and one of the leading companies in the FORTUNE ranking of the "most admired companies" in the world. In May 1997 he received the Leo M. Goodman Award from the American Chamber of Commerce , and in 1998 the CICERO Speaker Award .

Together with Reinhard Mohn, Mark Wössner developed a corporate culture based on partnership that is based on the principle of delegation of responsibility. He sees the motivation and identification of the individual employee with his task as the most important prerequisite for entrepreneurial success. His leadership model focuses on the entrepreneurial freedom of the individual manager. Strategic planning and controlling ensure growth and profitability within the group. Wössner compared his role as CEO to the role of conductor in an orchestra with many soloists. He advocated that the private mass media also take social responsibility and invest in quality media. The takeover and continuation of the Siedler Verlag goes back to his initiative, as well as the reconstruction of the old headquarters at Unter den Linden 1 as Bertelsmann's capital city representative.

In 1998 he handed over the chairmanship to Thomas Middelhoff . Wössner moved to Bertelsmann's supervisory board and in November of that year became chairman of the board of the non-profit Bertelsmann Foundation . He had been a member of the committee since 1996 and was also a member of the advisory board from 1989 . In October 2000, Wössner resigned from all offices in the Bertelsmann Group after a falling out with the then chairman of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Committee and company patriarch Reinhard Mohn .

In 2004 he succeeded Klaus Sturany as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen . He also held numerous other supervisory board mandates, including a. at DaimlerChrysler, Loewe, Douglas, Reuters, eCircle, AEG Power Solutions and Aurelius. He was also chairman of the advisory group at Deutsche Bank and a member of the executive committee of the Federation of German Industries and was a member of advisory bodies at Coca-Cola, RWE and EQT Investment Funds. He is chairman of Citigroup in Germany, honorary senator of both the University of St. Gallen and the University of Witten / Herdecke and a member of the board of trustees of the Technical University of Munich , which appointed him honorary professor for business administration with a focus on media in the Faculty of Economics in 2005. His non-profit and honorary activities include his long-term commitment to the Gütersloh City Foundation, the Udo Jürgens Foundation and the Eduard Rhein Foundation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tabular curriculum vitae
  2. ^ Jean-Marc Göttert: "The Bertelsmann Method", Frankfurt / Vienna 2001, p. 79
  3. ↑ https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/10/27/233300/index.htm
  4. ^ "The new conductor" in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, February 5, 1983
personal data
SURNAME Wössner, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wössner, Mark Matthias (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin