Francesco Costadura becomes RTL Group’s new Head of Human Resources (HR) and Executive VP HR

Luxembourg, 07-Apr-2016 — /EuropaWire/ — RTL Group today announced the appointment of Francesco Costadura (51) as RTL Group’s new Head of Human Resources (HR) and Executive Vice President HR, effective 1 August 2016. In this capacity, he will report to RTL Group’s Co-CEOs, Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch, and to Group CFO Elmar Heggen.

Francesco Costadura, currently Senior Vice President HR in RTL Group’s Corporate Centre in Luxembourg, will succeed Romain Mannelli (64), who will retire after having built and led the Group’s Corporate HR function very successfully for more than 20 years. In the months ahead, Romain Mannelli and Francesco Costadura will work closely together to ensure a smooth handover.

A joint statement from Anke Schäferkordt, Guillaume de Posch and Elmar Heggen says: “We are very pleased we have found, in Francesco Costadura, a strong, multi-lingual executive from within RTL Group to lead this key function. In times of rapid change in our industry, strategic HR topics – such as talent management, digital transformation and job rotation between our international units – become ever more important. Francesco Costadura is deeply familiar with RTL Group and Bertelsmann, and he has the extensive strategic and operational management experience required to systematically address these topics. We look forward to working with him, and wish him every success in his new position.”

“On behalf of RTL Group, we would like to thank Romain Mannelli for the outstanding service he has rendered to our Group. Following two major mergers in the years 1997 and 2000, Romain Mannelli was instrumental in bringing together very different European companies and in shaping a strong corporate culture and HR network across our international footprint, based on decentralisation, mutual respect and entrepreneurial spirit. With his open and hands-on approach, he has always been a trusted business partner to both general management, and to employees and their representatives. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”

Francesco Costadura joined RTL Group as Vice President Corporate Strategy and Business Development in 2002, and was appointed Managing Director, Rights Trading, of CLT-UFA in 2004. Three years later, he joined RTL Group’s HR department as Senior Vice President HR. In this capacity, he has been managing all HR-related aspects of RTL Group’s Corporate Centre and the Group’s Luxembourg-based entities. He has been affiliated with the Bertelsmann Group since 1992 and held various executive positions – including the general management of companies as Managing Director – at Arvato, CLT-UFA and AOL Europe. Francesco Costadura holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (United States). www.rtlgroup.com

Romain Mannelli was appointed Executive Vice President HR of RTL Group in 2001. He joined the Group as Vice President Human Resources in 1995 and has accompanied the Group throughout its steady development: he contributed to the merger of CLT and UFA in 1997, and the creation of RTL Group after the merger with Pearson TV in 2000. Prior to joining the Group, Romain Mannelli was Managing Director of Luxair-Tours, the airline’s tour-operator business. From 1990 to 1993, he was Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee of Luxair, in charge of all the Information Systems & Technology and Telecom networks of the company. Prior to joining Luxair, he oversaw the Information Technology and Information Systems of the Luxembourg railway company CFL (Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois) for more than 13 years. Romain Mannelli studied Information Technology at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and wrote his diploma thesis as a research associate at the Fraunhofer-Institut in Germany.

For further information please contact:

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Oliver Fahlbusch
Executive Vice President
Corporate Communications & Marketing
T.: +352 / 24 86 5200

About RTL Group
RTL Group is the leading European entertainment network, with interests in 57 television channels and 31 radio stations and content production throughout the world. The television portfolio of Europe’s largest broadcaster includes RTL Television in Germany, M6 in France, the RTL channels in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary and Antena 3 in Spain. The Group also operates the channels RTL CBS Entertainment HD and RTL CBS Extreme HD in Southeast Asia. RTL Group’s families of TV channels are either the number one or number two in eight European countries. The Group’s flagship radio station is RTL in France, and it also owns or has interests in other stations in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Luxembourg. RTL Group’s content production arm, FremantleMedia, is one of the largest international creators, producers and distributors of multi-genre content outside the US. With operations in 29 countries, FremantleMedia’s comprehensive global network is responsible for more than 10,000 hours of programming a year and distributes over 20,000 hours of content worldwide. Combining the catch-up TV services of its broadcasters, the multi-channel networks BroadbandTV, StyleHaul and Divimove as well as FremantleMedia’s more than 215 YouTube channels, RTL Group has become the leading European mediacompany in online video. RTL Group also owns a majority stake in the programmatic video advertising platform SpotX. For more information, please visit RTLGroup.com and follow RTL Group on Twitter @rtlgroup.