Press Release | Gütersloh, 11/09/2023

Bertelsmann Appoints Carsten Coesfeld to its Executive Board

• Appointed by the Supervisory Board with effect from January 1, 2024
• Coesfeld has been CEO of Bertelsmann Investments since June 2022
• Responsibilities on the Executive Board to include financial services provider Riverty

Gütersloh, November 9, 2023 – Carsten Coesfeld is to become a member of the Bertelsmann Executive Board. At its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of the international media, services, and education company appointed Coesfeld, who is CEO of the Bertelsmann Investments (BI) division, to the Executive Board with effect from January 1, 2024. He will be responsible for the new Executive Board department Investments and Financial Solutions.

Christoph Mohn, Chairman of the Bertelsmann Supervisory Board, says: “I congratulate Carsten Coesfeld on his appointment to the Bertelsmann Executive Board. In his multiple leadership roles, he has driven forward businesses in our three pillars of media, services and education. As CEO of Bertelsmann Investments, he contributes to the further development of Bertelsmann’s businesses and shape with the global fund network and Bertelsmann Next. As a member of the Executive Board, he will help to develop the Group with a holistic mindset going forward. I wish Carsten Coesfeld every success in this role.”

Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe said: “I would like to welcome Carsten Coesfeld to the Bertelsmann Executive Board. I look forward to working even more closely with him in the future and to the input he will bring to the work of the Executive Board. He knows Bertelsmann in all its many facets, has led several businesses to growth and profitability, and is setting an important course for the company’s future at Bertelsmann Investments.”

Carsten Coesfeld, CEO of Bertelsmann Investments and designated Bertelsmann Executive Board member, says: “I would like to thank the Supervisory Board for the trust it has placed in me by appointing me to the Bertelsmann Executive Board. I look forward to the opportunity to help shape Bertelsmann as a whole and to develop new businesses in an entrepreneurial way. My special thanks go to Thomas Rabe for his support.”

Coesfeld became CEO of Bertelsmann Investments (BI) on June 1, 2022, joining Bertelsmann’s Group Management Committee (GMC) at the same time. Coesfeld gave BI a sustainable long-term structure and initiated the Bertelsmann Next growth program. The Digital Health segment was built up through investments in companies such as the AI startup QuantHealth, Patient 21, Paytient, and the partnership with General Catalyst and Pitango. Through the acquisition of Studyflix, he accelerated the expansion of the HR tech company Embrace. With the help of its global network of funds, under Coesfeld’s leadership BI invested in start-ups such as Stori, Keep and Eruditus in the U.S. and Europe as well as in India, China, and Southeast Asia. To date, Bertelsmann Investments has invested around €1.7 billion in more than 400 innovative companies and funds. Bertelsmann Investments currently has 370 active holdings worldwide. In April 2023, Carsten Coesfeld was additionally appointed to the Board of Directors of RTL Group.

In 2020, Coesfeld had been named CEO of the long-established London publishing house DK. He strengthened its publishing profile and systematically focused DK on online sales, which led to a sustained leap in profitability and growth. At the beginning of 2016, Coesfeld had been appointed Managing Director at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions. Together with his team, he transformed the international service provider’s telecommunications business by building sustainable partnerships with high-growth tech companies. Previously, he had built the acute revenue cycle management business at Arvato Financial Solutions (now Riverty) and sat on the Executive Board of BFS Health Finance.

Coesfeld started at Bertelsmann in 2011 as a management associate to the CEO. He had begun his professional career in 2009 at Goldman Sachs’s private equity fund in London after having completed his business studies with a Bachelor's degree from WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management and a Master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Coesfeld is married and has a daughter.

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company with 85.000 employees that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company generated revenues of €20.2 billion in the 2022 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann aspires to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.