Bertelsmann Mourns The Passing Of Gerd Schulte-Hillen
The former chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Bertelsmann and Gruner + Jahr died on Wednesday aged 80.
Gerd Schulte-Hillen, former chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Bertelsmann and Gruner + Jahr died on Wednesday aged 80. Schulte-Hillen, who also held numerous management positions at Bertelsmann and G+J, left the Group at the end of 2003 after more than 34 years at Bertelsmann and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, where he most recently served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee.
Christoph Mohn, Chairman of the Bertelsmann Supervisory Board, said: “Gerd Schulte-Hillen was one of Germany’s most important and influential media personalities in the 1980s and 90s. In his leading positions, he played a decisive role in shaping not only the German but also the European press landscape. Gerd Schulte-Hillen always upheld his views with fortitude, which earned him great respect from management, employees, and shareholders. Bertelsmann owes him a great debt of gratitude. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and will honor Gerd Schulte-Hillen’s memory.”
Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe said: “In his more than three decades with the company, Gerd Schulte-Hillen played a big part in Bertelsmann’s overall development. From assistant to Supervisory Board Chairman, for Bertelsmann and for Gruner + Jahr – he performed all his duties with great entrepreneurial commitment and passion. As an outstanding media executive who could also be quite disputatious, he was involved in important decisions that set the Group’s course, provided a great deal of impetus, and was himself open to all kinds of ideas. We will miss him greatly as an entrepreneur and a person, and mourn his great loss with his family.”
Gruner + Jahr CEO Stephan Schäfer said: “Today we mourn not only the long-time former Chairman of the Executive Board of Gruner + Jahr, but also one of the defining figures in the history of publishing in the Federal Republic of Germany. Gerd Schulte-Hillen was a manager who was as successful as he was passionate, and he was an indefatigable advocate of independent journalism. With this attitude, he shaped G+J to this day. Gruner + Jahr and its publishing brands owe Gerd Schulte-Hillen a great deal. We bow our heads in deep respect as we mourn a great colleague, and our thoughts are with his wife and family.”
Gerd Schulte-Hillen, born in 1940, began his career in 1969 as assistant to the management of Bertelsmann’s Mohndruck printing plant in Gütersloh after studying engineering and economics. After several years abroad for Bertelsmann in Spain and Portugal, the then 32-year-old was appointed to head the G+J printing plant in Itzehoe near Hamburg in 1973, which he developed into one of Europe’s most modern and profitable gravure printing plants. At the same time, Schulte-Hillen joined the G+J Executive Board, of which he became Chairman in 1981. In 1985, he was appointed to the Executive Board of the then Bertelsmann AG, and in 1987 to the position of Vice Chairman of the Executive Board. On November 1, 2000, Gerd Schulte-Hillen was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann AG and Gruner + Jahr, became a shareholder in Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft, and Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, on whose Board of Trustees he had sat since 1993. At the end of October 2003, he resigned as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Gruner + Jahr and from his position at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. At the end of 2003, Gerd Schulte-Hillen stepped down as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann and as a Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft shareholder.
