Monika Piel

Monika Piel, 2012

Monika Piel (born April 9, 1951 in Bensberg , today in Bergisch Gladbach ) is a German journalist and presenter . Since April 1, 2007 she has been the director of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). Piel ended her job prematurely on April 30, 2013 for health reasons.

Life

Piel completed a degree in business administration at Cologne University of Applied Sciences and then studied law and oriental studies for two years at the University of Cologne without obtaining a degree.

During her studies she worked for the WDR, for example from 1977 as an assistant at the international morning pint under Werner Höfer . From 1979 to 1989 she worked as an editor and presenter for the current radio magazines of WDR 2 such as Morgenmagazin , Mittagsmagazin , Between Rhine and Weser , Reports from Today and Funkhaus Wallrafplatz . From 1982 to 1984 she worked for the WDR as a freelance journalist in Portugal . From 1989 to 1993 she was radio correspondent for economic and financial policy at the WDR studio in Bonn. Afterwards she was head of the radio program group Economy, Agriculture, Environment and Transport for a year.

In 1994 she was appointed radio editor-in-chief and in 1995 program director of WDR 2. Piel became editor-in-chief and deputy radio director in 1997 . From the end of 1997 to 2007 she was radio director of the WDR. From 2001 to 2003 she headed the ARD radio commission . On April 1, 2007, she succeeded Fritz Pleitgen as the new director of the WDR . In the election in the Broadcasting Council she received 38 votes, two against and two abstentions. Piel had no competitors after two candidates, the ZDF editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender and the NDR legal advisor Werner Hahn, had withdrawn. Before that, SR director Fritz Raff had already waived. At times she moderated the press club alternately with Volker Herres and the morning pint, which was brought back to life on Phoenix . In May 2012 she was re-elected as artistic director for six years.

Piel is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Civis Media Foundation and the Board of Trustees of the Heinz Kühn Foundation . She has been Honorary Senator of the Honorary Guard of the City of Cologne since 2009 - alongside Ilma Greven , she is only the second woman to be appointed to the Senate. In January 2009 she was awarded the Bröckemännche Prize of the Bonn Media Club , and Friedrich Nowottny gave the laudation .

From 2011 to mid-2016 she was chairwoman of the board of the Kulturstiftung Kölner Dom and has been a member of the board of trustees since August 2016.

In October 2013, Piel announced the reasons for her resignation: she had insomnia and palpitations and was diagnosed with arteriosclerosis in January 2013 .

Monika Piel is married to the WDR-2 radio presenter Roger Handt . The couple have a daughter and live in the Voreifel .

Extra income

In August 2010 it was announced that Piel earned 352,000 euros as WDR director in 2009 (308,000 euros plus allowances). The present value of their retirement benefits in 2010 was EUR 2.14 million. This amount had already increased to 3.2 million euros by the end of 2012.

The background to the compulsory publication of the WDR is Article 41 (4) of the WDR Act , which the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament passed in December 2009 on the initiative of the then state government ( Rüttgers cabinet , 2005–2010). There it says: "The WDR publishes the remuneration granted to the general manager and the directors elected by the Broadcasting Council for the work in the financial year, by naming them, broken down into success-independent and success-related components and components with long-term incentives."

In 2012, Piel had ancillary income of 58,922 euros. Piel's successor Tom Buhrow receives 367,232 euros a year (as of 2013).