Thomas Spiegel becomes Managing Director of the Blick Group
Thomas Spiegel is joining the Group Executive Board and will be responsible for Global Media, while also serving as managing director of the Blick Group. Alexander Theobald is taking over the CEO role at Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland from Ralph Büchi. Büchi will leave the company as planned and focus on his role as chairman of the supervisory board at Axel Springer in Berlin.
As part of the further expansion of digital media activities, Thomas Spiegel will join the Group Executive Board of Ringier as of February 1, 2020. His area of responsibility includes all journalistic products of the Ringier Group.
The 36-year-old joins from Dentsu Aegis Network, where he served as CEO Switzerland since 2015. During this time, the network's Swiss presence has grown to around 800 employees through strong organic growth and strategic acquisitions, and has won a large number of well-known clients. Prior to that, Spiegel spent several years in senior positions for the global agency network, during which time he established another successful agency presence in Austria. Before joining Dentsu, he worked at Google in account management for some of the world's largest clients.
Marc Walder, CEO Ringier, in a statement: "With Thomas Spiegel, we are gaining a proven expert in digitally focused media strategies, marketing and transformation. With his broad know-how and his large network, Spiegel will support us in strategically developing Ringier's journalistic activities. In parallel, he will assume operational responsibility for the Blick Group."
Alexander Theobald (55), who in addition to his role as COO Ringier Switzerland previously also held the position of CEO of the Blick Group, will take over operational management as CEO of Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland from Ralph Büchi (62) as of April 1, 2020. He will continue to report to CEO Marc Walder and, in his capacity as CEO, to the Board of Directors of Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland.
Ralph Büchi will leave Ringier AG by best mutual agreement and at the end of his contract on May 31, 2020, in order to concentrate fully on his duties as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE, Berlin, which he took up in April 2019, as well as other mandates. During the transition period, he will continue to oversee selected projects.
The Group Executive Board of Ringier will be structured as follows as of February 1, 2020:
- Marc Walder, CEO
- Annabella Bassler, CFO
- Robin Lingg, International Marketplaces
- Thomas Spiegel, Global Media and Blick Group
- Alexander Theobald, COO Switzerland and CEO Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland
