Change in the Management Board of the GfK Group
Nuremberg, June 14, 2010 – Dr. Gérard Hermet, member of the Management Board of GfK SE with responsibility for the Retail and Technology sector, will be leaving the company’s Management Board of his own volition at the end of the year. His successor will be Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger, who most recently held the position of CEO at Emnos GmbH, a subsidiary of Loyalty Partner GmbH. He will be appointed as a member of the Management Board of GfK SE as of September 1 this year, and will assume sole responsibility for the Retail and Technology sector from January 1, 2011.
Dr. Gérard Hermet (59) can look back on a 30-year career in the market research industry, 26 years of which he has spent at GfK. He joined GfK in 1984 as Managing Director of the French subsidiary GfK France, now GfK Retail and Technology France. Parallel to this, Dr. Gérard Hermet, who completed his doctorate in Economics, also managed the business of the French company GfK Custom Research France from 1988. In 1999, the year in which GfK went public, Dr. Gérard Hermet was appointed to the Management Board of GfK SE and since then he has been responsible for Retail and Technology, GfK’s most successful and profitable sector.
As the global market leader, the GfK Retail and Technology sector provides clients with information and consultancy services, which are based on continuous surveys and analyses of sales of consumer goods and services in the retail industry in over 80 countries. The sector’s services include regularly published surveys on the market segments of office communications, photographic technology and optics, electrical household appliances, information technology, telecommunications, sports equipment, tourism, consumer electronics and entertainment media.
Dr. Gérard Hermet will leave the Management Board of the GfK Group of his own volition at the end of the year, and will prematurely terminate his five-year contract, which would have been effective until the end of 2013. This corresponds to his personal plans to retire from this position by the age of 60. Dr. Gérard Hermet will support Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger in his induction to the Retail and Technology sector until the end of the year, and will be available to provide advice to the Management Board from January 1, 2011. The priority will be the further development of the new and innovative research method GfK Network Intelligence Solutions (GfK NIS), which is based on analyzing the internet protocols of mobile internet usage. Dr. Gérard Hermet is playing a key role in setting up this project.
"Dr. Gérard Hermet’s great dedication has made Retail and Technology what it is today, a real gem in our service offering,” says Professor Dr. Klaus L. Wübbenhorst, CEO of GfK SE. "On behalf of the Management Board and all GfK employees, I would like to thank him wholeheartedly for his exceptional contribution to our company.”
"The Supervisory Board would like to second this thanks, and is especially pleased that Dr. Gérard Hermet will remain closely affiliated to GfK as an advisor after the end of the year,” adds Dr. Arno Mahlert, Supervisory Board Chairman of the GfK Group.
Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger (48) will be appointed to the Management Board on September 1 and, together with Dr. Gérard Hermet, will be jointly responsible for the Retail and Technology sector until the end of 2010. He will assume sole responsibility from January 1, 2011. Holding a doctorate in Economics, he most recently occupied the position of CEO at Emnos GmbH, a consultancy and service company which focuses on strategies for client-centered growth. Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger began his career as Project Manager for Corporate Planning at Karstadt AG. He joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as a consultant in 1994, and five years later he became a partner for the areas of consumer goods and retail. In 2006, he was appointed Managing Director of the corporate consulting company Accenture, where he was responsible for the retail sector in German-speaking countries. In Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger, the GfK Group is fortunate to have acquired a leading personality with international experience who will continue to drive forward the successful development of the Retail and Technology sector.
Contact
Bernhard Wolf
Corporate Communications
Tel. +49 911 395-2012
Fax +49 911 395-4075
bernhard.wolf@gfk.com
Press release