BURDA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Media - Key Figures
- Media - Sales Revenue Development
- Media Bangkok
- Media Berlin
- Media Bottighofen
- Media Bristol
- Media Cologne
- Media Dresden
- Media Frankfurt
- Media Friedberg
- Media Hamburg
- Media Hongkong
- Media Inc
- Media Is One of Germany 's Largest Media Companies. As an International Group With Numerous Subsidiaries and Brands in 11 Countries, Burda Is Active Worldwide
- Media Lisbon
- Media Ljubljana
- Media London
- Media Manchester
- Media Mettmann
- Media Munich
- Media New York City
- Media Nuremberg
- Media Offenburg
- Media, Kommanditgesellschaft
- Media, Munich, Offenburg
- Publisher, Pioneer, Entrepreneur
His is a life that has fused art, the media and innovation: Hubert Burda has earned a global reputation as an entrepreneur, publisher, digital pioneer, art historian and executive editor. Today the managing partner of Hubert Burda Media Holding has come to personify his organization's success story. The group, which is fully owned by the Burda family, reported adjusted external sales of 2,945 billion euros in fiscal 2021. In January 1987, when he took over his father's publishing house in Offenburg, it had posted turnover of 500 million deutschmarks - less than a tenth of the current total. In 2010, he entrusted the group's operational management to Paul-Bernhard Kallen, today's chairman of the board of directors. He was followed by Martin Weiss as new CEO as of January 1, 2022. Hubert Burda celebrated his 80th birthday on February 9, 2020. He is married to Maria Furtwängler and their children - Jacob Burda and Lisa Furtwängler - have each owned 37.5% of the group since 2017.
As a publisher, Hubert Burda knows how to navigate diverse, seemingly irreconcilable spheres: the world of journalism, publishing and printing, and that of the visual arts and literature. In his experience, aspects of one can have an inspirational effect on the other. He first recognized the power of images vis-à-vis pure text when pursuing his interests in painting and sculpture, and applied this insight to the field of news media. In doing so, he tapped the potential of images and graphics for the print sector - above all in the digital space. By launching the news magazine Focus in 1993, he opened a new chapter in German journalism history and turned it into an unprecedented commercial success. Another innovation - a radically different style of news presentation featuring graphics and charts - allowed complex content to be conveyed faster. This led to a phenomenon characterized by the art historian Gottfried Boehm as the "Iconic Turn" and which Hubert Burda subsequently cemented in the public consciousness.
Hubert Burda frequently cited an adage from the cultural critic Walter Benjamin: "Where communications change, the foundations of society change as well."
Hubert Burda Media can count Focus, Freundin, Instyle and Bunte among the many magazines it publishes. Its portfolio also features an array of successful internet companies, including the social network Xing, the e-commerce provider Cyberport, the travel site Holidaycheck, and Focus Online - which is part of BurdaForward, Germany's leading digital publisher. In 2017, Burda acquired Immediate Media, one of the largest media companies in the U.K., along with its TV and radio guide Radio Times.
Hubert Burda has published three books during the past few years. Notizen zur digitalen Revolution 1990 - 2015 ("Diary on the Digital Revolution: Notes from 1990-2015") describes the author's learning process since 1990, which ultimately led him to merge the print publishing company with a dynamic digital provider to build a multimedia group. His work Digitale Horizonte ("Digital Horizons") contains 13 speeches given between 1990 and 2010 that outline his vision for the digital future. His most recent publication, Landwege Seewege ("Land Routes, Sea Routes") marks the final part of his trilogy on the digital revolution. It consists of personal diary entries that document the digitalization of the media and society over a quarter century.
BurdaInternational bundles the global activities of Hubert Burda Media. Operating in 14 countries, it employs 2,400 people and owns 250 media brands. International media brands include Immediate Media, Burda Create!, Publishing Europe and BurdaLuxury.
BurdaPrincipal Investments is the international growth capital arm of Hubert Burda Media. BPI supports fast-growing digital companies in the technology and media industry with long-term growth capital. BPI's investment portfolio comprises successful consumer internet companies in Europe, the USA and Asia. Example investments include Skillshare, Vinted, Bloom & Wild, Notonthehighstreet, Oddbox and The Female Company.
Hubert Burda Media is one of Germany's largest media companies. As an international group with numerous subsidiaries and brands in 11 countries, Burda is active worldwide.
Hubert Burda Media is looking back on a satisfactory financial year despite Russia's war of aggression in Europe, skyrocketing energy and production costs, and high inflation: In 2022, the Burda Group generated over 2.9 billion in revenue from roughly 500 products in Germany and 18 other countries. The Group employed more than 10,500 people at the end of 2022.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, Hubert Burda Media was divided into three operational divisions for the first time: Consumer Media, B2B Media and Services, and Commerce. The separation into four operational divisions still in use in the previous year was adjusted in this way to align more closely with business models. Burda's goal in all profit centers is to deliver products and services to the market that add the greatest possible value for people.
B2B revenue grew in the New Work group - thanks to its strategic realignment to the growth segment of B2B e-recruiting. Sales revenue in the print business also increased over the previous year. Burda continued its successful transformation of consumer-oriented business activities. The expansion of digital business models, above all at BurdaInternational in Poland and BurdaForward, led to higher revenue in online advertising and e-commerce activities. Burda's international investment arm, which provides long-term growth capital for fast-growing technology and media companies, also expanded its portfolio to include 27 participating interests.
Despite the growing challenges, the Executive Board of Hubert Burda Media is optimistic about the current financial year.
Hubert Burda Media continues to work consistently on its digital transformation and on building and expanding new business models. The Group anticipates largely stable sales revenues for 2023.
Hubert Burda was President of the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) from 1997 to 2016. In 1991, he founded the European Publishers Council (EPC) and defended the interests of publishers on the national and international stages. Since 2000, his Hubert Burda Foundation has been identifying and giving exposure to emerging topics in the fields of science, culture, art, the media and healthcare under the able direction of Dr. Christa Maar. Hubert Burda is sponsoring the Senator Honorary Award which celebrates unpaid volunteers who make significant contributions to civic life in Offenburg and Ortenau. In 2001, following the death of his first son Felix, Hubert Burda founded the Felix Burda Foundation for Bowel Cancer Prevention together with his mother Christa Maar. Since then, 180,000 people with cancer precursors have had them surgically removed, 80,000 deaths from intestinal cancer have been prevented, and a further 40,000 cases detected at an early stage, most of them still curable.
He has received numerous honors and distinctions for his publishing and entrepreneurial achievements. These include Germany's Order of Merit and the Jakob Fugger Medal. In recognition of his support for the European Center of Excellence for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, he was appointed an honorary senator of the Heidelberg University for Jewish Studies. In 2012 he was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Hubert Burda has been an honorary citizen of Munich since 2019.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Katharina Herrmann was appointed to the Hubert Burda Media Executive Board on 1 January 2022, where she is responsible for the newly created unit Human Resources and Compliance. Since 1 October 2018, she had been Director of Human Resources at the company, heading the Group-wide Human Resources division.
Previously, Herrmann was Chief Human Resources Officer and Director of Labour at 50Hertz Transmission GmbH, a German-owned transmission system operator in Berlin. As an Executive Board member, she was responsible for HR and Health & Safety and was also a member of the Compliance Committee. Before joining 50Hertz, she had written a Ph.D. in classical philology and worked for eight years at McKinsey & Company as a management consultant where her remit focussed on HR and talent management.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Marc Al-Hames appointment to the Board of Hubert Burda Media takes effect from 01.01.2023. His areas of responsibility include BurdaCommerce (e.g. Cyberport and Computeruniverse), HolidayCheck, BurdaNext, which manages majority shareholdings in digital platform companies (e.g. Nebenan.de and Cliqz), and the service provider Burda Digital Systems.
Al-Hames joined Burda in 2011, as Head of Corporate Development and Member of the Management Board at Tomorrow Focus AG, now HolidayCheck Group AG. From 2013, he was managing director of Cliqz GmbH, a majority-owned subsidiary of Hubert Burda Media, for seven years. From 2020 to 2024, he was CEO of the Group subsidiary HolidayCheck Group AG. Before joining Burda, he was project manager at McKinsey & Company.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Holger Eckstein studied economics at the University of Duisburg. He then obtained his Master of Business Administration from Indiana University, Pennsylvania (USA). He also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.
From 1990 to 1995, Eckstein worked in Corporate Controlling/Mergers & Acquisitions at the chemicals and pharmaceutical company Hoechst AG. He then joined Hubert Burda Media as Director Corporate Controlling. Six years later, he became managing director of Burda Services. Eckstein has been a member of the board and CFO of the media corporation since 2009.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Philipp Welte was born in 1962 and trained as a newspaper journalist. After studying political science and empirical cultural studies at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, he became a freelance journalist. In 1992, he moved to Leipzig to work at MDR, a public service broadcaster that was being developed as part of the ARD network.
He joined Hubert Burda Media in 1994 as head of communications. In late 1998, as managing director, he assumed responsibility for Bunte magazine. It was in this capacity that he launched the German edition of InStyle in 1999, the world's first franchise of the successful US brand. He also founded the Burda People Group, which encompassed the STARnetONE entertainment unit in Berlin - the unit that produces Bambi, Europe's most important media award.
In late 2006, Welte moved to Axel Springer, where he was appointed CEO of Bild T-Online AG in 2007 and became responsible for what is now Bild.de. In early 2008, he was named Chief Marketing Officer and managed Axel Springer Media Impact, the emerging multi-channel marketer. At the end of 2008, he was appointed to the Hubert Burda Media management board and has been in charge of the corporation's national publishing business ever since.
Job Titles:
- Appointed CEO of Immediate Media Co
Sean Cornwell is appointed as CEO of Immediate Media Co, the UK-based special interest content and platform company, which was acquired by Hubert Burda Media in 2017.
Job Titles:
- Werkstudent Business Development & Innovation ( M / W / D )
- Werkstudent Sales ( M / W / D )