Bertelsmann Welcomes New Reinhard Mohn Fellows

The recipients of Bertelsmann’s Reinhard Mohn Fellowship have achieved extraordinary things at an early age. They have set up organizations and initiatives with one overriding goal: to help other people. Their creative, dedicated and purposeful efforts make a real contribution to society, which makes them a good match for Bertelsmann, whose management gave Reinhard Mohn a trainee program for precisely such people as a gift on his 80th birthday five years ago. This time around, Marvin Fernandes from India, Kevin Edward Long and Jasmine Taylor from the U.S., Philip Ndeta from Kenya – who moved up to replace Dannis Fafard from Canada, who was originally selected – and the first ever candidate from Germany, Christian Rickerts, will be enjoying Bertelsmann’s support in achieving their goals. As the third round of participants in the Reinhard Mohn Fellowship program, they will spend a year collecting entrepreneurial expertise in various divisions of our media company, to be applied later to their project and hence for the benefit of their own society or that of another country. The project’s director Anette Bickmeyer and her assistant Mathias Damaschke welcomed the Fellows to their first day at Bertelsmann yesterday at the Corporate Center in Gütersloh.

In the twelve months ahead, they will get to know the media company and be given an opportunity to set up international contacts and hone their leadership and entrepreneurial skills in intensive project work, which will later enable them to continue their own efforts with new impulses and even greater success. But first, the Fellows will be in Gütersloh for eight weeks, to build some basic knowledge about Bertelsmann and prepare for their upcoming projects in various divisions in a number of workshops.

"The Fellows will be given a roughly eight-week introduction to the basics of Bertelsmann’s corporate culture and insights into the diverse world of Bertelsmann media," explains Anette Bickmeyer. In the ten remaining months, the five participants will work on projects at various profit centers in different countries, in the process acquiring skills that will benefit them well beyond their time at Bertelsmann.

And who are the five new Fellows? Here are a few brief introductory notes:

Marvin Fernandes, 31, brought old Indian myths to the modern world of television, where they are enjoying their revival as a cultural good by reaching the youngest viewers again as cartoons. A project established by Kevin Edward Long, 31, helps to ensure increased future prospects for deaf students in developing countries by making sure they learn to use sign language. Christian Rickerts, also 31, set up the "Schüler helfen Leben" (Students Help with Life) foundation to help children and teens in southeastern Europe, with aid monies received from wages paid for a volunteer day worked by German children and teens. The U.S. "Community Harvest Foundation" co-founded by Jasmine Taylor, 29, assists children from socially disadvantaged neighborhoods to help ensure that their background doesn’t keep them from getting off the ground. And Philip Ndeta (who turns 41 on May 10) is committed to ensuring that needy families, as well as orphans, receive food, education and medical care, and co-founded the "Learning and Development Kenya (LDK)" initiative among other things.