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Hartmut Ostrowski appointed to Bertelsmann AG Executive Board as successor to Gunter Thielen
Head of successful Bertelsmann Services Group to head up Arvato as of September 2002 - growth and excellent customer service as top priorities

Gütersloh (ots)

The Bertelsmann AG Supervisory Board has
appointed Hartmut Ostrowski, 43, as a deputy member of the
Bertelsmann Executive Board, effective October 1, 2001. Ostrowski is
scheduled to become a regular Executive Board member on September 1,
2002. He will then become the successor to Gunter Thielen, the
Executive Board member in charge of the Arvato corporate division.
Thielen will turn 60 in August 2002 and will be leaving the
Bertelsmann AG Executive Board on August 31, 2001. Ostrowski has
headed the Bertelsmann Services Group within the Arvato division
since 1995. Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman & CEO of Bertelsmann AG,
welcomed the supervisory board's decision: "Here at Bertelsmann,
Hartmut Ostrowski stands for entrepreneurial spirit, competence,
excellent customer service and economic success. Under his
lead-ership, the Services Group has flourished into a globally
active, highly profitable group of companies, which in Germany alone
counts one in two DAX companies - and internationally speaking, a
number of top addresses - among its customers. I am delighted that
Hartmut Ostrowski will be contributing his wealth of experience and
his energetic manner to the Bertelsmann Executive Board in future."
Ostrowski, born in Bielefeld in 1958, joined Bertelsmann immediately
after obtaining his business degree. He started out as an executive
assistant in Bertelsmann Distribution, the germ cell of what is now
the Services Group. He quickly rose through the com-pany's ranks,
interrupted briefly in the 1980s by a job with a US financial
services provider. He returned to Bertelsmann Distribution in 1990 as
divisional manager; in 1992, he became the general manager, and in
1995 the CEO of the newly formed Bertelsmann Services Group. He has
been an Arvato AG Executive Board member since 1996.
Ostrowski led the Services Group, which in the early 1990s had
just under 3,000 employees, and generated revenues of DM 150 million
and DM 6 million operating profit, to its current employee base of
more than 11,000 employees. In the fiscal year 2000/01 just ended,
the Services Group generated turnover of roughly DM 2 billion and
EBITA of DM 202 million. The company does business at 30 offices in
17 countries. Its core competencies are logistics (inventory
management, mail-order shipping, accounting) and communications
(service centers) for major customers like Deutsche Lufthansa,
Allianz, Lego, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Deutsche Bahn. Early
on, Ostrowski aligned the Services Group to booming industries,
securing two-digit growth rates and high yields for the group.
As the designated Executive Board member in charge of the Arvato
AG, Hartmut Ostrowski will be assuming responsibility for a globally
positioned media service pro-vider, which includes - beyond the
Services Group - state-of-the-art printing works and the production
of storage media. Gunter Thielen has developed Arvato into a
market-leading, internationally famous group of companies that offers
its customers the entire value chain: from design and content
generation to data management, printing and reprocessing down to
distribution and associated financial services. Arvato currently has
offices in 23 countries, with a total of 22,500 employees. For fiscal
year 2000/01, the company reports revenues of DM 5.9bn and an EBITA
of DM 283m.
ots Original Text Service: Bertelsmann  AG
Internet: http://www.presseportal.de
For questions: 
Oliver Herrgesell 
Media and Financial Relations 
Tel: +49 - 52 41 - 80 24 66  
Oliver.herrgesell@bertelsmann.de 
Internet pages:
http://www.bertelsmann.com/bag/management/management.cfm 
Photo: http://www.bertelsmann.de/news/photos/photos.cfm

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