Gerd Schulte-Hillen Leaves Bertelsmann

Gerd Schulte-Hillen, Chairman of the Bertelsmann Supervisory Board and Vice Chairman of the Bertelsmann Foundation Executive Board, is leaving Bertelsmann and the Bertelsmann Foundation at the end of 2003.

Bertelsmann's shareholders - the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert - and Gerd Schulte-Hillen have agreed to mutually and friendly end Gerd Schulte-Hillen's mandates. Prior to the decision, there had been different views between the Supervisory Board Chairman and Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Gunter Thielen on the strategic direction of the company.

As a consequence, Schulte-Hillen announced his resignation as Supervisory Board Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Bertelsmann's shareholders thank Gerd Schulte-Hillen for his more than 34 years of extraordinarily successful work and for his great services to Bertelsmann.

Until the Supervisory Board Chairman's successor has been elected, Deputy Supervisory Board Chairman Dieter Vogel will chair Bertelsmann's Supervisory Board.

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