A Portrait Of Fernando Carro
Fernando Carro (50) is a member of the Bertelsmann Executive Board and CEO of Arvato. The new Board member is one of the most experienced Bertelsmann managers and knows the company from many different perspectives: Over more than 20 years, he has assumed responsibility for Bertelsmann’s businesses in a variety of countries, divisions and positions.
Born in 1964, the Spaniard attended the German School in Barcelona and completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk in his hometown before going on to study industrial engineering at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. During this time, the enthusiastic sportsman and passionate supporter of FC Barcelona also worked as a sports journalist for the press and radio in Spain, Germany and Austria. At university, Carro volunteered with the international student association AIESEC in Venezuela and Germany. From 1990 to 1991, he was President of AIESEC Germany and from 1991 to 1993 president of AIESEC International.
That same year, Carro joined Bertelsmann via the company's Corporate Junior Executive Program. By 1994, Carro became Managing Director of Etrasa in Madrid, then in 1998 Managing Director of Heinrich Vogel Verlag in Munich, both part of what was then Bertelsmann Fachinformation, the specialist-publishing division. In 1999, Carro was appointed to the divisional Executive Board of Bertelsmann Springer.
In July 2001, Fernando Carro returned to his homeland Spain for Bertelsmann for the first time – as Chief Executive Officer of Círculo de Lectores. In 2005 he joined the Direct Group division’s executive board, at the same time taking over the operational management of the German club as Managing Director before additionally becoming CEO of Direct Group Bertelsmann in 2007. Since 2011, Fernando Carro has served as CEO of the club and direct-marketing businesses, and since 2012 has sat on the Bertelsmann Group Management Committee.
As President Latin America and Spain, Fernando Carro also advances Bertelsmann's businesses in the Iberian Peninsula and in the growth markets of Latin America, especially Brazil. After the opening of the new Corporate Center in Sao Paulo, Bertelsmann has succeeded in establishing a foothold in Brazil in recent years, with a clear focus on the growth platform of education. Initial fund investments were followed by direct investments in promising companies in 2013. The BR Education Ventures fund jointly set up with the investment company Bozano was of particular importance. And only a few weeks ago Bertelsmann became the key shareholder in the Brazilian education company Affero Lab. For Fernando Carro this was “another important step on our path to make the education business a third mainstay of business for Bertelsmann alongside media and services.”
Fernando Carro is married and has three children. He lists his favorite pastimes as reading, sports and travel, all of which have a very obvious connection to the top manager’s career.
