Thomas Rabe Appointed to Bertelsmann AG Executive Board as CFO

At its session today, the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board appointed RTL Group's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Thomas Rabe (39) to the Bertelsmann AG Executive Board, with effect from January 1, 2006. Rabe will succeed Siegfried Luther (60) as the new CFO of Bertelsmann on that date. As announced earlier, Luther will retire from the Bertelsmann AG Executive Board when his contract expires on December 31, 2005. Rabe will also head the Bertelsmann Corporate Center in his capacity as CFO.

Dr. Thomas Rabe, born in Luxembourg in 1965, began his career at the European Commission after completing his studies at the Universities of Aachen and Cologne. From 1990 to 1996, he worked for the Brussels law offices of Forrester Norall & Sutton (now White & Case). Having also worked at the Treuhandanstalt state privatization agency in Berlin and the Beteiligungsgesellschaft Neue Länder private equity fund during this time, he then joined Clearstream International, a provider of clearing, settlement and custody services, as CFO and member of the group's executive management team in 1996.

In August 2000, Rabe was appointed Chief Financial Officer of RTL Group in Luxembourg. The publicly listed corporation is Europe's leading broadcasting and TV production company with interests in 31 television channels and 30 radio stations in ten countries. In March 2003, he was additionally appointed head of the RTL Group Corporate Center, responsible for Finance, Legal, Human Resources, Internal Audit and Corporate Strategy. At the same time, he manages the group's TV and radio activities in Luxembourg and sits on the Board of Directors of a number of its subsidiaries.

For further questions, please contact:
Oliver Herrgesell
Senior Vice President Media Relations
Phone: 49 - 5241 - 80 - 24 66
oliver.herrgesell@bertelsmann.com

A photo of Thomas Rabe may be viewed and downloaded at the following URL: http://www.bertelsmann.com/news/photos/photos.cfm

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