Supervisory Board

Chair

Stefan von Holtzbrinck’s career in publishing began at Kirch Media Group, Bloomsbury and then in the New Media division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. He joined Macmillan Limited as a director in 1997 and then served as Managing Director at Nature Publishing Group. He joined Holtzbrinck Publishing Group as Chief Executive Officer in 2001. Dr von Holtzbrinck was born in 1963 in Ettlingen, Germany. He studied Law and Literature and earned his PhD in Media Law from the University of Munich.

Date appointed: 2018

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH (member of the executive board)
• ZEIT Verlagsgruppe GmbH & Co. KG (chairman of the supervisory board)

Deputy Chair

Nikos is Partner and Member of the Executive Committee and Investment Committee of BC Partners, the leading international investment firm. He joined BC Partners in 2005 and has over 20 years’ experience in private equity. He has been an active investor in the media, telecoms, consumer and retail industries. Prior to joining BC Partners, Nikos was a Partner at Apax Partners in London where he spent seven years working on large buy-out transactions in Europe. Prior to Apax he spent three years as a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in London. Nikos is Chairman of the Board of United Group, Cigierre, Dental Pro, and Pharmathen, Vice-Chairman of Migros Turk and Member of the Board of Springer Nature and Acuris. Nikos is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Harvard Business School, the Board of Trustees of Impetus, the Board of Trustees of the American School in London, a member of the council of Serpentine Galleries, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Chairman of the BC Partners Foundation. Nikos holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a degree in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics & Business (AUEB).

Date appointed: 2019

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• United Group (chair of the board)
• Cigierre (chair of the board)
• Dental Pro (chair of the board)
• Pharmathen (chair of the board)
• Migros Turk (vice chair of the board)
• Advanced (board member)

Obi Felten is founder and CEO of Flourish Labs -  a startup using cutting edge mental health science and technology to foster flourishing and good mental health. Before she led early stage projects at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, responsible for getting early stage projects from the lab into the real world, or ensuring they fail fast. Previously she was Director of Consumer Marketing for Google in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Before Google, Ms Felten launched the ecommerce business of a major UK retailer, worked as a strategy consultant, and led eToys.com's (unsuccessful) expansion to Germany during the first dotcom era. She is a start-up mentor and angel investor, with a focus on women entrepreneurs.

Born in Saarbrücken, Germany in 1973, Ms Felten grew up in Berlin and has a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford University and today lives in San Franscisco.

Date appointed: 2018

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• Flourish Labs (founder & CEO)
• BfB Labs (board member)
• Shift (trustee)

Chair of Audit Committee

Birgit Haderer started her career in Frankfurt, Germany at Goldman Sachs as an analyst, and was later promoted to associate and Vice President in the Chicago and San Francisco offices, respectively. In 2013, she started as VP Corporate Finance at Zalando SE, Berlin, Germany, and was later promoted to SVP Finance & Indirect Procurement. In 2020, Birgit was appointed CFO of Personio.

Birgit was born in Donauwörth, Germany in 1978 and holds a diploma and master’s degree in business administration from the University of Mannheim, Germany.

Date appointed: 2020

Term expires: 2024

Partner of member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• Personio Group SE (CFO)

Stefan Oschmann has been a leader in the international pharmaceutical and life science industry for decades. Between 2016 and 2021 he served as the CEO and Chairman of the DAX 40 listed technology group Merck. Before joining the Management Board of Merck, he worked for many years as a senior executive in the management of the US pharmaceutical company MSD. On an honorary basis, Stefan Oschamnn was the President of the European Pharma Association EFPIA and the World Pharma Association IFPMA and still is the Vice President of the German Academy for Technical Sciences acatech.

Dr Oschmann was born in Würzburg, Germany in 1957. He holds a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.

Date appointed: 2018

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG (Chair of the Supervisory Board)
• UCB S.A. (Chairman of the Board)
• Josef Schörghuber Foundation, (Member of the Foundation Council)
• Malteser Deutschland GmbH

Bernd Scheifele was born in 1958 in Freiburg, Germany. Dr Scheifele studied law at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and at the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Illinois, United States and a PhD in law from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Dr Scheifele started his career as an attorney at the law firm Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch in 1988. In 1994, he became the chairman of PHOENIX Pharmahandel. Between 2005 and 2020, Dr Scheifele served as Chief Executive Officer at HeidelbergCement. In 2005, Dr Scheifele was appointed as chairman of the advisory board of PHOENIX Pharmahandel. In 2006, he was appointed as a member of the supervisory board of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.

Date appointed: 2018

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• PHOENIX Pharma SE (chair of the supervisory board)
• PHOENIX Pharmahandel GmbH & Co. KG (chair of the advisory board)
• Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH (chair of the supervisory board)

Björn Waldow began his professional career at Deutsche Bank where, after training as a banker, he worked in various positions in the corporate banking sector. From 2002 to 2010, Mr. Waldow was employed by the management consultancy Roland Berger, which he left as a principal. Mr. Waldow then moved to the Sixt Group. There he was as a Managing Director responsible for the Strategy, M&A, Sales Controlling and Group Risk Management departments. In April 2015, Mr. Waldow assumed the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Sixt spin-off Sixt Leasing, which he helped to take public shortly thereafter. In October 2021, Mr. Waldow was appointed to the Executive Board of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group as Chief Financial Officer.

Mr. Waldow was born in Mannheim in 1974 and, after training as a banker at Deutsche Bank, earned a degree in business administration from the University of Mannheim and a diploma in business studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Date appointed: 2022

Term expires: 2024

Partner or member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of:

• Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH (Member of the Executive Board)

• Commerzbank AG (Member of the Regional Advisory Board Southwest)

• DZ Bank AG (Member of the Corporate Customer Advisory Board)