Coesfeld Named Chair & CEO Of Bertelsmann

• Bertelsmann keeps it in the family and has appointed Thomas Coesfeld as its new Chairman & CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2027, ending speculation over whether he or his older brother Carsten would take the top role. As Reuters reports, Coesfeld, 35, and the CEO of Bertelsmann’s music division, BMG, is the grandson of company patriarch Reinhard Mohn and will be the first head of the company appointed from within the family since 1981 when he replaces 15-year company veteran Thomas Rabe, whose contract expires on Dec. 31, 2026.

Both brothers have been members of the Bertelsmann executive board, overseeing divisions which also include Penguin Random House, since 2024. “Over the past ten years at Bertelsmann, I have come to know Thomas Coesfeld as an entrepreneurial manager,” said Christoph Mohn, Chairman of Bertelsmann’s Supervisory Board. “He has taken the BMG music business to a significantly higher level of revenue and earnings in recent years and aligned it even more consistently with the streaming era. His appointment marks a generational change in Bertelsmann’s leadership. I wish him every success and a steady entrepreneurial hand.”

Coesfeld, who earlier served as CFO as BMG, was elevated to CEO on July 1, 2023, succeeding founding CEO Hartwig Masuch, and also become a member of Bertelsmann’s Group Management Committee (GMC), which advises the Group Executive Board. He began his career with McKinsey in Munich.