Thomas Coesfeld is promoted to head of the BMG music division.
(Photo: Bertelsmann)
Dusseldorf Thomas Coesfeld, a grandson of former Bertelsmann boss Reinhard Mohn, becomes managing director of the music company BMG. This was announced by its parent company Bertelsmann on Monday. Coesfeld will lead the music rights company on January 1, 2024. This area is strategically important for Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe.
With the 32-year-old Coesfeld, another member of the owner family is at the head of a division of Europe’s second largest media group. Thomas Coesfeld’s brother Carsten Coesfeld, who is three years his senior, has been in charge of the Bertelsmann Investments division since last summer. This is the company’s global venture capital arm.
The brothers belong to the seventh generation of the Bertelsmann dynasty. Both are given opportunities for top management positions at headquarters. When they were 14 and 11 years old, their grandfather Reinhard Mohn and his future wife Liz asked them if they could imagine a career in the company.
After the Second World War, under the leadership of Reinhard Mohn, the group had developed from a medium-sized printing and publishing house into an international media group through acquisitions and investments.
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Bertelsmann owns the TV group RTL, the service provider Arvato and the publishing business Penguin Random House. With sales of around 663 million euros, the music business is the group’s sixth largest division, but is one of the fastest growing. According to internal plans, sales should be one billion by 2025.
CEO Thomas Rabe wants to invest around five to seven billion euros by 2025 with his future strategy called “Boost”. BMG should also benefit greatly from this. This Bertelsmann division was founded in 2008. She quickly became number four in the global music business. The portfolio includes rights to the works of the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and Nena.
Coesfeld has worked at Bertelsmann since 2016
Thomas Coesfeld was appointed CFO of BMG in April 2021. “In his previous function as CFO, he consistently advanced the company’s digital orientation,” said CEO Rabe on Monday.
Coesfeld sees “enormous entrepreneurial potential” in the music industry and wants to focus even more on data, technologies and services in the future. At the same time, he also becomes a member of the Bertelsmann Group Management Committee, which advises the Group Executive Board.
Coesfeld began his career at Bertelsmann in early 2016. He worked there for the printing and marketing service provider Bertelsmann Print Group. He previously studied business administration in Vallendar, Washington and Atlanta. In 2014 he started as a management consultant at McKinsey.
Coesfeld succeeds Hartwig Masuch. He worked for Bertelsmann for 32 years and was with BMG for more than 14 years. Now the “right time has come to hand over the management to a new generation,” said the 68-year-old. Masuch will remain with the company as a consultant.
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