Management

Anke Schäferkordt has had overall responsibility for Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland since September 2005 and is Managing Director of RTL Television. As of 2012, she is as well a member of the Executive Board of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. From 2012 to 2017, she was additionally Co-Chief Executive Officer of the RTL Group together with Guillaume de Posch.

After studying business administration Anke Schäferkordt began her professional career at Bertelsmann in 1988. In 1991 she became an executive assistant for sales controlling and strategic planning at RTL plus in Cologne and one year later took over the Controlling Department. From 1993 to 1995 Anke Schäferkordt was Director of the Corporate Planning and Controlling Division at RTL. In 1995 she moved to VOX television where she was CFO and was also named Program Director in 1997. In 1999 Anke Schäferkordt was appointed CEO of VOX. In February 2005 she returned to RTL as Chief Operating Officer and Co-Chief Executive of RTL.

Matthias Dang, born in Mainz in 1967, studied economics in Mainz from 1989 to 1993. In addition to studying, he worked in the 3sat central editorial office. In 1993 the graduate in economics joined IP Deutschland and held various positions in the Marketing department until 1998. In 1998, he was appointed Sales Director. In 2003, he moved back to Marketing as Marketing Director. Between 2004 and 2009 he was manager of Sales, and in October 2009 he additionally became Deputy Managing Director. Matthias Dang has been Managing Director of IP Deutschland since September 2012.

Hans Demmel, born in Wagrain in 1956, has been Managing Director of n-tv since September 2007. His professional career started as a journalist in the print media: after his school leaving examinations (Abitur) he worked as a trainee at “Oberbayerisches Volksblatt” where he subsequently worked as local editor. His move to television in 1979 first led Hans Demmel to “Bayerisches Fernsehen” in Munich, where he worked as reporter and editor for 11 years. In 1990 he then moved to commercial television: becoming Managing Editor at “Sat.1 News”, later becoming Sat.1’s USA correspondent in Washington from 1992, and in 1993 he ultimately became deputy chief editor of “Sat.1 News”. Hans Demmel has worked at the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland since 1994: the first station was RTL Television, where he was a reporter on the “Extra” magazine program. In 1999 he became Chief Editor there. At the start of 2002, Hans Demmel moved to VOX as Editor in Chief. Three years later, in April 2005, he returned to RTL as Magazine division manager.

Alexander Glatz, born in 1970, has been Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the executive board of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland since September 2015. In his position as CFO he is responsible for the Corporate Planning/Controlling division, the Finance and Accounting departments, balance sheets, payroll accounting and procurement, as well as the Business & Legal Affairs division of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. Following his law degree at the University of Constance, Alexander Glatz first started as Project Manager in the Sales Branch at Deere & Company in England. After obtaining a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the Rotterdam School of Management, the fully qualified lawyer moved to the RTL Group in 2000, where he held various positions in the Business Development and Controlling division. He has been Vice President Controlling since 2004, and from 2010 until his move to the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland he was Executive Vice President, Strategy & Controlling.

Thomas Harscheidt, born in 1966, has been Managing Director of CBC (Cologne Broadcasting Center) since April 2002. He began his professional career in 1990 as a technician with RTL. In 1992 he moved to VOX as Head of Broadcast Operations and Playout. With the spin-off of VOX Broadcast Operations and Playout to the newly-founded company Sendezentrum Köln, from which CBC arose in 1994, Harscheidt also moved to CBC in 1994 as Deputy Technical Director after previously undertaking consultancy work for TV broadcasters in London and Caracas. During this time he was heavily involved in the development of CBC with the expansion of the production and broadcasting center in Cologne-Ossendorf and in Cologne’s Mediapark, as well as the broadcasting centre in Munich-Ismaning. In 1998 he was appointed Technical Director of CBC, a company which was part of the Technical Division RTL Group, Luxembourg, between 1998 and 2002.

Frank Hoffmann, born in 1966, has been Managing Director of Programming at RTL Television since February 2013. He began his professional career as a freelancer even before completing his high school diploma (Abitur) at “Westfalen Blatt” and after completing his exams he worked at “Bonner Rundschau”. In 1988, Frank Hoffmann started as editor and photographer with “teuto Press”. In 1989 he moved to “teuto Tele” as editor, where he took over the management of the Hannover studio two years later with responsibility for RTL reporting from Lower Saxony. In 1992, Frank Hoffmann moved to the RTL magazine “Explosiv” as editor and reporter. In 1993, he became Managing Editor and Deputy Chief Editor there. In 1994 Frank Hoffmann took over the editorial management of the RTL magazine “Extra”, and from 1999 to 2005 he additionally took on the divisional management for all magazine programs at RTL. From April 2005 until his move back to RTL Television, Frank Hoffmann was Managing Director of VOX.

Thomas Kreyes, born in 1965, has been the Secretary General of RTL Television since November 2004. He has held this position since the foundation of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. Thomas Kreyes is responsible for the following divisions: Communications, Legal, Media Research and Youth Protection, as well as (in his capacity as Managing Director of RTL CREATION) Marketing, Promotion and Design of RTL. After his degree in economics and journalism, Kreyes started as a junior executive and assistant to the Communications Director of RTL in 1992 before taking on the role as head of department for Corporate PR/Media Policy in 1995. In 1996, Kreyes moved to the General Secretariat of RTL and supported former RTL Managing Director Helmut Thoma on communications matters. From 1999 he was responsible for office management for the then new head of RTL, Gerhard Zeiler, and from 2000 to 2004 he was responsible for managing RTL’s Personnel & Organization division.

Bernd Reichart, born in 1974, has been Managing Director of VOX since February 2013. Prior to this, since 2007 he worked as Managing Director Multichannel with the commercial TV broadcaster Antena 3 in Spain (which belongs to the RTL Group). In this position, he was responsible for five free-TV broadcasters. Bernd Reichart studied sport and English and lived in Salamanca/Spain and in the USA for an extended period during his degree. He started in the sports marketing sector with UFA Sports in Hamburg immediately after finishing university. In 2003 he opened a branch in Madrid for the sports rights agency SPORTFIVE, where he worked as Marketing Manager. In 2004, he moved to RTL Group’s Antena 3 in Spain as Head of Investor Relations. Since 2012 he has been a patron of the Fundación Bertelsmann in Spain, which is chaired by Liz Mohn.

Claude Schmit, born in Luxembourg in 1960, has been Managing Director of SUPER RTL since 1999. After completing his degree in the unusual subject combination of law, business administration and criminology in Paris, in 1985 Claude Schmit moved to the marketing department of a large steel conglomerate, where he worked for several years. This was followed by two years spent as a marketing research assistant at the University of Keio in Japan. In 1989 he went to New York and back to the steel industry. In 1992 he moved to the media industry and to CLT in Luxembourg. Claude Schmit then moved to SUPER RTL in 1994.

Marc Schröder, born in 1970, has been Chief Strategy Officer since May 2017. As a member of the executive board, he is responsible for the strategic corporate development of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, smart data and diversification business. Prior to this, since 2008 he worked as Managing Director RTL interactive.

After studying industrial engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and business administration at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. in Cambridge, USA, from 1995 he worked as a management consultant for Boston Consulting Group in Munich and Copenhagen. From 1999, as Divisional Manager for Strategic Corporate Development at RTL Television, Marc Schröder was responsible for the advancement of the broadcaster’s “new media” activities. From 2000, as New Business Director at RTL NEWMEDIA, he managed business development, the online investment portfolio and the internet access business (from 2001 as Managing Director of RTL NET). In 2002 Marc Schröder moved to T-Online International, where he was responsible for the online and TV activities of T-Online Vision as well as the entire content business on www.t-online.de. From 2005 to 2006 he was responsible for the “T-Home” business unit and project, and therefore for the development of the IPTV service and the high speed network of Deutsche Telekom (DTAG). From 2007 Marc Schröder was responsible for international product management for the fixed-network business as segment board member for Communication Services within the Products & Innovation business unit of DTAG.

Jan Wachtel, born in 1979, has been Managing Director of RTL interactive and, as Chief Digital Content Officer, is a member of the Management Board of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland since May 2017.

After completing his economics studies in Hamburg, Germany and Tilburg in the Netherlands and graduating with a Master of Science Degree in International Business, he started his professional career in 2004 working for Bertelsmann Financial Services as a business and project analyst. As of 2007 Jan Wachtel became an advisor to the management board of BILD, the German newspaper publisher. In 2009, he was named publishing director of WAZ (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung) today Funke Mediengruppe. As of 2010 he became Finance Director and Member of the Management Board of BILD Digital GmbH & Co.KG responsible for financial management matters, all data-based activities as well as sports offerings of BILD digital. Starting 2014, he was appointed Managing Director Digital responsible for all digital operations of the BILD Gruppe. As of 2015 he became Chief Operating Officer for the BILD Gruppe involving such additional responsibilities as management, steering and organization of the operating processes of both print and digital.

Michael Wulf, born in 1959, has been Managing Director of infoNetwork GmbH since February 2008 and Managing Editor in Chief since November 2004. In this position Michael Wulf is responsible for the entire news reporting of RTL and VOX, and since September 2007 for a large part of the magazine program formats of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. After studying business administration, working as a trainee and editor at the publishing house Axel Springer, Michael Wulf first started in 1989 as a news editor with RTL Aktuell, before becoming responsible for the program as Managing Editor in 1990 and as Editor in Chief from 1994. In 1998, Michael Wulf took on the role of Head of News at RTL and was appointed Deputy Editor in Chief of the RTL Information Division in 2000.