ProSiebenSat.1 hires Dyson exec as co-CEO for entertainment arm

German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 is revamping its management structure, with its Entertainment arm to be split off as a standalone company under co-CEOs Wolfgang Link and Michaela Tod, currently president of soon-to-be-Singapore-based vacuum cleaner outfit Dyson’s Greater China region.

Sales and marketing chief Sabina Eckhardt is meanwhile to leave the company by mutual consent, with her responsibilities transferred to Tod. CFO Jan Kemper is also leaving ProSiebenSat.1 by mutual consent.

The broadcaster’s ‘three pillars’ of Entertainment, production unit Red Arrow Studios and non-TV activities outfit NuCom Group will each be led by two co-CEOs going forwards. The parent company will establish a new executive committee on April 1 comprising CEO Max Conze, the SFO and deputy CEO and group general counsel.

Link, currently chief content and channel officer for the entertainment pillar, will be responsible for the new entertainment company’s linear and digital content and platforms.

Tod will joint ProSiebenSat.1 as co-CEO of Entertainment in April, responsible for sales, advertising technology, SevenVentures and marketing.

Tod has spent 14 years with Dyson, looking after the Chinese market for the last three years and working closely with e-commerce and digital platforms such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Kemper will be replaced as CFO by Rainer Beaujean, currently CFO of listed packaging manufacturer Gerresheimer AG. Beaujean, who will join ProSiebenSat.1 on July 1, has also worked for T-Online, where he served as CEO between 2004 and 2006.

ProSiebenSat.1’s current deputy CFO Ralf Peter Gierig will take over as interim finance chief until Beaujean joins the company.

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.

Conze said that the group was “making good progress on our transformational journey to build a consumer centric, digital first entertainment to commerce powerhouse”. He said that having “clear companies and CEOs leading the business with a sharper and efficient holding structure will help us accelerate further”.

ProSiebenSat.1 said its preliminary results for the full year were in line with guidance and that year-to-date Q1 trading was off to a solid start.

The latest reorganisation follows the group’s setting out of a five-year transformation plan last November to grow its top line from €4 billion to €6 billion.

The three pillars structure was established at the end of 2017, with ProSiebenSat.1 bringing together its enlarged Advertising Platform Solutions business, its SevenVentures investment arm and digital platforms including Maxdome and the 7TV app together with TV broadcasting as part of Entertainment.