Bernd Schröder to be new CEO of FC Schalke 04 | OneFootball

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FC Schalke 04

·23 September 2021

Bernd Schröder to be new CEO of FC Schalke 04

Article image:Bernd Schröder to be new CEO of FC Schalke 04

As part of the strategic realignment of the club, the Supervisory Board of FC Schalke 04 has decided to change the board structure: The existing committee around Peter Knäbel (Sports) and Christina Rühl-Hamers (Finances, HR and Legal Affairs) will be expanded to include a CEO. This will come into effect on January 1, 2022. The CEO will be responsible for Strategy, Communication, Marketing and Sales.

In its meeting on Thursday (23.9.), the Supervisory Board unanimously voted for Dr. Bernd Schröder to become the new CEO. Schröder was appointed to become member of the board when he takes office in January 2022. Schröder, selected from a large number of strong candidates by a selection committee of the Supervisory Board, has been Director of Marketing and Sales at Bayer 04 Leverkusen since May 2019. Schröder with a PhD in Economics began his professional career as assistant to the board of management at Allianz Versicherung, worked for a total of 17 years in various management positions for the Bertelsmann Group and was responsible for the German-speaking end customer business at Direct Group. From 2013 to 2017, the 55-year-old headed Christ Juweliere und Uhrmacher GmbH as chairman of the management board. Since 2018, Schröder has also been the managing partner of whyit GmbH, a platform that deals with company building of digital business models.


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Axel Hefer, chairman of the Schalke supervisory board, was very pleased with the committee’s decision: “Bernd Schröder is the best conceivable choice to lead our club into a successful future, he fits perfectly into the profile we are looking for: as an experienced and effective top manager he has already proven himself successful in various tasks and areas. We are absolutely convinced of his leadership qualities – a major criterion in our search.”

Regarding the background to the structural decision, Hefer explains: “We have the clear view that the club needs a holistic strategy for a successful future that goes beyond the short-term challenges of day-to-day business. In addition to the sporting and economic planning, we will place a special focus on the actual core of the club, its meaning and purpose and to develop a sustainable and value-oriented strategy. What role can Schalke 04 play in a changing world of football? How can the club live up to its social responsibility in a structurally weak region? We have to answer these and many other questions in order to lay the foundations for lasting success.”

The new constellation of the board is intended to drive this process forward. “In Bernd Schröder we have found a CEO who, with his professional experience and his balanced nature, ideally strengthens our existing board. We are sure that the board will continue to professionalize our club by working together and making it successful in the long term”, says the chairman of the supervisory board.

Bernd Schröder wants to dedicate himself to this goal with all his might and great motivation: “I start my journey at Schalke with great respect, but especially great anticipation, and I am determined to fulfill the trust placed in me. I stand firmly behind the Schalke values, love the emotions and the special passion of this great traditional club. It will be a pleasure and an honor for me, as part of the team, consisting of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, to lead Schalke to its unmistakable core, to its place in society and to sporting success. In the Ruhr area, in Germany – and of course beyond.”

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