Business News
Judith Hartmann to become new Chief Financial Officer of Bertelsmann
Wednesday 11. July 2012 - Judith Hartmann (43) is slated to become the new Chief Financial Officer at Bertelsmann. This was agreed by the Supervisory Board of the international media group.
She is scheduled to succeed Thomas Rabe as Chief Financial Officer, a position he has held in addition to his new role as Chairman & CEO since the beginning of the year, before the year is out. Hartmann will simultaneously become a member of Bertelsmann’s Group Management Committee (GMC). A native of Austria, she is currently the CFO at General Electric (GE) Deutschland, where her duties include overseeing the Controlling, Accounting, Finance and Business Development Finance departments. Hartmann began her career at Walt Disney in Paris after completing a doctorate in economics at the University of Vienna.
Gunter Thielen, Chairman of the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board, said: “In Judith Hartmann, we gain an internationally experienced financial expert for our Executive Board, one who has very successfully demonstrated her skills and strong leadership in a variety of different positions. I am confident that she will enhance the work done by the Executive Board with her proven financial expertise, while providing valuable new impetus.”
Thomas Rabe, Chairman & CEO of Bertelsmann AG, added: “I am delighted that Judith Hartmann will be succeeding me as CFO of Bertelsmann. She is eminently qualified for the tasks required to gradually reshape Bertelsmann in the years ahead. I will work closely with her. At the same time I am very pleased that her appointment means the addition of another woman to the Bertelsmann Board and the GMC. This once again clearly underlines Bertelsmann’s commitment to diversity in its management teams.”
Judith Hartmann is a member of the Global Executive Team at GE and as Chief Financial Officer has borne commercial responsibility for a number of the group’s business units in the past eight years, most recently for its operations in Germany. Prior to this, she held the same position at GE Healthcare Latin America, GE Water Europe, Middle East & Africa and GE Healthcare Clinical Systems at the São Paulo, Brussels, Vienna and Wauwatosa (USA) offices.