Coesfeld is not just any manager at Bertelsmann. He is a grandson of Reinhard Mohn, who died in 2009. Under the company patriarch, after the Second World War, Bertelsmann developed from a medium-sized printing and publishing house into an international media group through acquisitions and investments. Coesfeld now has the task of further developing Bertelsmann in a similar way in modern times.
The group has more excess capital to distribute than ever before in its history. CEO Thomas Rabe wants to invest five to seven billion euros by 2025 – a significant amount of which should go to Bertelsmann Next.
Coesfeld wants to create growth through investments in digital health applications, especially in the USA. In 2023, Bertelsmann Investments wants to announce several acquisitions and investments in this area, Coesfeld announced in an interview with the Handelsblatt. It’s the first time he’s giving an interview. “The healthcare market in the USA is larger than the entire German economy,” he says.
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A major pain point in healthcare is administration, Coesfeld explains. Bertelsmann wants to use digital services to enable doctors and nurses to make appointments more quickly, to use operating theaters more efficiently or to do billing more easily.
Growth with Digital Health
Medical staff spend 13 hours a week on administration, notes Coesfeld. “If we help doctors and medical staff to have more time for their patients, we can do something for society.” And earn money with it: The consultancy Roland Berger predicts that the market for digital health services will have a global volume of one trillion euros. Bertelsmann itself expects annual market growth of eight percent in this business segment.
Coesfeld also sees potential business in supporting pharmaceutical companies, for example in researching new drugs. “Medicine is becoming more and more personalized, which makes bringing new medicines to market more difficult,” explains Coesfeld.
He also recognizes potential in human resources. The economy suffers from a shortage of skilled workers, statisticians count over 1.8 million vacancies in this country. Coesfeld wants to present an offer in 2023 that should help companies and job seekers to find each other better.
The manager’s contract runs until the end of 2026.
(Photo: Bertelsmann)
The fact that a media group wants to invest in digital health applications may come as a surprise at first. But Bertelsmann has long seen itself as a media, service and education company. The group already makes 1.4 of its almost 20 billion euros in sales with healthcare businesses.
>> Read more: Why Bertelsmann is investing 161 million in an education company in Brazil
The Gütersloh-based company holds shares in Relias, a US company for online training, and the Brazilian service provider Afya. In addition, the group handles billing for doctors and hospitals or organizes the transport of medicines for pharmaceutical companies.
Coesfeld himself had rebuilt the hospital billing business at Bertelsmann service provider Arvato between 2012 and 2015. Group CEO Thomas Rabe later suggested investments in the field of digital health. Rabe is said to have been quickly convinced – and promoted Coesfeld to head of Bertelsmann Investments in June 2022.
Possible successor to the chief post
That should not have been the last career step of the Mohn grandson: At the Gütersloh headquarters, Coesfeld is considered a possible candidate to succeed Rabe, whose contract expires at the end of 2026. Coesfeld does not want to participate in speculation. “The question does not arise. I like to see what tasks are currently on the table for me,” he says in an interview.
His career so far has been suitable for the board of directors: First, he studied management at the private WHU University and the London School of Economics and worked at the investment bank Goldman Sachs in London. In his mid-20s, he started at Bertelsmann as an assistant to the then boss, Hartmut Ostrowski.
Coesfeld worked in several areas of the company. Most recently, he made the London non-fiction publisher Dorling Kindersley go digital, which brought in record results there. Bertelsmann boss Rabe says: “In his previous management positions, Carsten Coesfeld has led existing businesses to more growth and higher profitability.” The Handelsblatt recently recognized Coesfeld as one of the 30 top young executives in German business.
>> Read more: These 30 top talents could change the German economy
With him, for the first time in many years, a member of the owner family is at the head of a division. Coesfeld belongs to the seventh generation. Because he has a different last name, not everyone in the group knows that he is part of the family clan.
The family company Bertelsmann wants to invest in the field of digital health.
(Photo: Bertelsmann)
The 35-year-old is married, has a daughter and lives in Gütersloh. His brother Thomas Coesfeld, who is three years his junior, is also active in the operative business of Bertelsmann as CFO of the music division BMG. Both were asked at the age of 14 and 11 by grandfather Reinhard Mohn and his later wife Liz if they could imagine a career in the company.
Reinhard Mohn was once skeptical about leadership roles for family members. In his book, published in 2000, he wrote that opportunities for advancement for family members had to “comply with the rules that apply in our company”.
Bertelsmann Next is to become a new important pillar
The development of Bertelsmann Next should be the test for Coesfeld. That may be one reason why he does not comment on specific goals for the division. “Bertelsmann Next is to become a new important pillar of the company. We’ll see what that means,” he says.
The largest pillar of Bertelsmann is currently the RTL Group, with annual sales of 7.7 billion euros, to which the publishing house Gruner + Jahr now also belongs. This is followed by Arvato (five billion) and the book business Penguin Random House (four billion).
The Bertelsmann Investments division and thus Coesfeld’s task also includes three funds. In addition, the group has invested more than 1.6 billion euros in more than 400 companies since 2006, of which 1.3 billion euros have so far flowed back through sales and IPOs. This resulted in over 20 unicorns, i.e. companies with a valuation of over one billion euros.
Coesfeld is currently traveling a lot to identify possible acquisitions and business partners. He comes to the interview from Düsseldorf Airport. “We have to be quick and patient at the same time,” he says. It is important to build up a network quickly and then wait for a suitable investment opportunity. “Entrepreneurship is what drives me.”
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