Bastei Lübbe AG appoints new Chief Financial Officer

Cologne, June 14, 2023 – The Supervisory Board of Bastei Lübbe AG, a company listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, has appointed Mathis Gerkensmeyer (41) as a new member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He succeeds Joachim Herbst, who did not renew his contract, expiring July 31, 2023. Mr. Gerkensmeyer will join the publishing house on September 1, 2023.

After graduating in business administration from the University of Cologne with a focus on media management, corporate finance, and media economics, Mathis Gerkensmeyer began his professional career at Axel Springer SE, Hamburg/Berlin, in 2009. He held various positions in the company’s digitalisation strategy, most recently as Senior Investment Manager responsible for new and existing company investments in the digital portfolio.

At the portfolio company Runtastic GmbH, he took on the role of Head of Finance in 2015. The Austrian company specialises in the development and operation of mobile apps in the fitness sector and has been part of adidas AG since August 2015. As part of his professional development, Mathis Gerkensmeyer was appointed to the Executive Board as CFO in 2019.

Carsten Dentler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bastei Lübbe AG: "With Mathis Gerkensmeyer, we are gaining a proven financial and digital expert for Bastei Lübbe AG. His expertise is not only in finance and process optimisation, but also in the successful implementation of digital community-driven business models. He will help the company to further accelerate the digitalisation that has already been initiated and will provide decisive impulses as part of the Executive Board team."

"The Supervisory Board would like to thank Joachim Herbst once again for his successful work. He has made a significant contribution to the realignment of Bastei Lübbe AG, its positioning as an innovative and excellently positioned publishing group in the German market, and the return of the company to successful and profitable development," added Carsten Dentler.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:

Bastei Lübbe AG is a German general-interest publisher based in Cologne, specialising in the publication of books, audio books and e-books featuring fiction and popular science content. The company’s core business also includes the periodically published novel booklets. With a total of fifteen imprints, the group currently offers several thousand titles in the fields of fiction, non-fiction and children’s and young people’s books. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction, the company has been one of the market leaders in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is a driver of innovation in digital media and exploitation channels through the production of thousands of audio and e-books among other things.

With annual revenues of around 95 million euros (2021/2022 fiscal year), Bastei Lübbe AG is one of the largest medium-sized companies in the German publishing industry. Its shares have been listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information can be found at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:

Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49 (0)221 8200 2850
E-mail: [email protected]