Helmut Gettkant Elected to Bertelsmann AG's Supervisory Board

Helmut Gettkant (54), chairman of the Mohn Media works council and member of the Bertelsmann AG Corporate Works Council, has been elected as an Employee Representative to the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board. The election took place today in an extraordinary general meeting following his nomination by the Corporate Works Council. Helmut Gettkant will join the Supervisory Board with immediate effect, taking the seat of Willi Pfannkuche, who had stepped down from the Supervisory Board after taking early retirement in January 2008.

Gunter Thielen, Chairman of the Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board, said: “Having employee representatives on the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann is an expression of our corporate culture of partnership. Helmut Gettkant has been a works council member here at Bertelsmann for 24 years and during that time has earned great respect from his colleagues. He is deeply familiar with Bertelsmann and with employees’ concerns. The Supervisory Board looks forward to a trusting collaboration that will benefit the company.”

Helmut Gettkant is a machinist by training and joined the Bertelsmann subsidiary Sonopress in 1975 as a metalworker. In 1990, he moved to the metalworking department of Gütersloher Druckservice (then a Mohndruck subsidiary), followed six years later by a move to the metalworking department at Mohndruck. He has served as a works council since 1984; full-time since 1998. In 2002, Gettkant was appointed the deputy of the long-time Mohn Media Works council chairman Willi Pfannkuche, replacing him as works council chairman upon his departure. At the beginning of June 2008, Gettkant was elected to the Corporate Works Council of Bertelsmann AG. Helmut Gettkant was born in Rothenuffeln (Minden-Lübbecke district), is married and has two grown children.

The Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board is now composed as follows:

Dr. Gunter Thielen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh (Chairman of the Supervisory Board)

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Strube, Chairman of the BASF AG Supervisory Board, Ludwigshafen; Shareholder of the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Gütersloh (Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board)

Dr. Wulf H. Bernotat, Chairman of the Board of Management and Chief Executive Officer, E.ON AG, Düsseldorf

Helmut Gettkant, Member of the Bertelsmann AG Corporate Works Council, Gütersloh

Dr. Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt

Dr. Hans-Joachim Körber, Chairman of the Executive Board, Metro AG, Düsseldorf until October 31, 2007

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Milberg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, BMW AG, Munich

Dr. Brigitte Mohn, Chairwoman of the Stiftung Deutsche Schlaganfallhilfe; Member of the Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung; Shareholder in Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Gütersloh

Christoph Mohn, Chief Executive Officer, Lycos Europe N.V, Haarlem

Liz Mohn, Vice CEO of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Chairwoman of the Board of Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Gütersloh

Erich Ruppik, Chairman of the Corporate Works Council of Bertelsmann AG, Gütersloh

Lars Rebien Sørensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novo Nordisk A/S, Bagsvaerd

Reinhard Mohn is Chairman Emeritus of the Supervisory Board.

About Bertelsmann AG

Bertelsmann is an international media company encompassing television (RTL Group), book publishing (Random House), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), music (BMG), media services (Arvato), and media clubs (Direct Group) in more than 50 countries. Bertelsmann’s claim is to inspire people around the world with first-class media and communications offerings – entertainment, information and services – and occupy leading positions in its respective markets. The foundation of Bertelsmann's success is a corporate culture based on partnership, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and corporate responsibility. The company strives to bring creative new ideas to market and create value.

Bertelsmann is comprised of the television channels, television production companies, and radio stations of Europe's largest entertainment group, RTL Group (RTL Television, M6, Five, Fremantle Media), and the more than 120 publishing houses of Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher (Alfred A. Knopf, Bantam, Goldmann). Gruner + Jahr is Europe's number one magazine publisher (Stern, Geo, Neon, Capital). The Sony BMG joint venture in the BMG division is synonymous with creativity and strong international music brands (Beyoncé, Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera). The Arvato media and communications services division brings together distribution, service centers and customer-relationship management, state-of-the art printing manufacturing, storage media production, mobile services, and comprehensive IT services. Bertelsmann's direct-to-customer businesses are unified within the Direct Group: book, DVD, and music clubs (Der Club, France Loisirs), as well as book retailers in France and Portugal.

For further questions, please contact:

Andreas Grafemeyer

Senior Vice President Media Relations

Phone: +49 – 5241 / 80 24 66

andreas.grafemeyer@bertelsmann.de

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AR_Gettkant_e_.pdf	72 kB