Media company Ringier AG is laying important foundations for the future. At the company’s management conference in Zurich, it was today announced that current CEO Marc Walder had purchased 10% of the company’s shares. The shares are taken equally from the holdings of the company’s three family members. Marc Walder will remain company CEO and is also set to succeed Michael Ringier as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
As part of the Ringier family’s generation planning, it was also announced that Robin Lingg will lead the sixth generation of family shareholders in the medium term. As a member of the Group Executive Board, Lingg will continue to focus on his role as head of the Marketplaces business.
Chairman of Ringier’s Board of Directors Michael Ringier on this new strategic direction: ‘As CEO, Marc Walder has played a key role in Ringier’s transformation over the past few years. It is now my pleasure to welcome him as Managing Partner to our shareholder group as well. This is an indication from both sides of the close and successful partnership we have built over the years and of our continued commitment to Ringier in the long term.’
He added: ‘With the appointment of my nephew Robin Lingg as the future head of the shareholder family, we are making early plans for the next generation. I am delighted to have a manager of Robin’s experience as a family representative on the committees.’
Ringier (68) began his career in journalism in 1973. He has worked for several publications, including the Munich Abendzeitung, Stern and impulse. In 1983, he joined the Ringier management team and was appointed CEO two years later. Ringier served as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1991 to 1997, before stepping down in 1997 to take over the operational management of Ringier AG. He returned to his position as Chairman of the Board of Ringier Holding AG again in 2003. Ringier is a passionate and renowned collector and patron of contemporary art. He is married, has two daughters and lives near Zurich.
As CEO of Ringier AG, Marc Walder (52) took over as Chairman of the Group Executive Board in April 2012. Walder began his career at Ringier in 1991. He has held various positions within the company, including Editor-in-Chief of Schweizer Illustrierte, Editor-in-Chief of SonntagsBlick and Editorial Manager of the Blick Group. Since September 2008, Walder has been CEO of Ringier Switzerland and Germany, and a member of the Ringier Group Executive Board. Under his leadership, Ringier AG has consistently pursued a diversification and digitalisation strategy. Walder completed the Advanced Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School in Boston in 2008. He is founder of the digitalswitzerland initiative, which brings together about 100 of the largest Swiss companies and institutions to promote the digital transformation of the country. Walder is married, has two daughters and lives near Zurich.
Robin Lingg (38) has been a member of the Ringier AG Group Executive Board since 2014 and heads up the International Marketplaces business, which comprises Ringier AG’s strong digital brands, such as Scout24 Schweiz AG, JobCloud AG, DeinDeal AG and Geschenkidee.ch, and the digital marketplaces in Romania, Africa and Asia. Lingg was previously CEO of Ringier Africa and Asia, and Head of Business Development, and had been a member of Ringier AG’s Board of Directors since July 2011. He is the son of Evelyn Lingg-Ringier, who owns Ringier AG together with her brother Michael Ringier and sister Annette Ringier. Lingg studied languages, economics and cultural science at the University of Passau in Germany. He worked in various positions for the international pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH from 2006, where he spent his last few years in Mexico. Lingg is married, has three children and lives in Zurich
Ringier AG, Corporate Communications