Urs Rohner to leave ProSiebenSat.1 Group
Guillaume de Posch to become Chairman of the Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG
Munich, March 23, 2004. Urs Rohner, 44, the Chairman of the Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, has decided to leave the Company as of April 30 to take up a new professional challenge on June 1 at a multinational corporation in his native country Switzerland. The new CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG will be Guillaume de Posch, 46, currently the Groups Chief Operating Officer.
Said Haim Saban, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and CEO of its principal shareholder, Saban Capital Group: I want to extend my most cordial thanks to Urs Rohner. With the merger of ProSieben and Sat.1, over the past four years he has created an internationally unique family of stations. His strategic skill guided the ProSiebenSat.1 Group successfully through the most difficult period in its corporate history. Despite the massive crisis in the advertising industry, the insolvency of its former principal shareholder KirchMedia, and the arduous sales process, the Group, under his leadership, was able to expand its market position and significantly increase its profitability last year. I very much regret his decision to leave the Group, and I wish him the greatest luck and success in his future endeavours.
Mr. Saban added: Im glad to say that in Guillaume de Posch we have a TV manager with international experience to take over from Urs Rohner as CEO. Mr. de Posch will keep the Company on its chosen course, and further strengthen the competitive position of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. The Groups organization as a true family of stations, with four strong brands wholly owned by the corporation, is without parallel on either the German or the international market. Im convinced the Group will benefit even further from this competitive advantage under Guillaume de Poschs leadership.
Guillaume de Posch has been the ProSiebenSat.1 Groups COO since September 2003. Before that, he was Vice-General Manager and Programming director at the French Pay TV company TPS. From 1993 to 1997 he worked at CLT in Luxembourg (former RTL Group), where he was in charge of TV operations in French-speaking countries. Mr. de Posch was born in Belgium, and has a degree in business administration. He began his career in 1984 with Tractebel S.A., the international energy and services conglomerate, for whose Engineering Division he ultimately served as Vice President Far East in Hong Kong. He joined McKinsey & Company in Belgium in 1990.
Urs Rohner is a lawyer by education and worked as an attorney at the offices of Lenz & Staehelin in Zurich and Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City, respectively, from 1983 to 1999. He was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board of ProSieben Media AG in 2000, and of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG the same year, after the merger between ProSieben and Sat.1.
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