Peter Zühlsdorff resigns as president

Peter Zühlsdorff, President of the GfK Verein, has resigned for health reasons with effect from 31 December 2012. Vice President Prof. Hubert Weiler, Supervisory Board Chairman of UNIVERSA Versicherungen and the former Chief Executive Officer of Sparkasse Nürnberg, will take over the President’s tasks until new elections are held by the Meeting of Members on 5 July 2013.

Peter Zühlsdorff (72) has successfully managed GfK’s development for 26 years. He was a member of the Advisory Board of GfK GmbH from 1986 and became a member of the Supervisory Board after the company’s conversion into a joint stock corporation in 1989. From 1992 to 2005, Peter Zühlsdorff was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GfK AG and President of the GfK Verein. In 2009, following the amendment of the articles of association of the GfK Verein, he was unanimously re-elected President by the extraordinary Meeting of Members and has since led the GfK Verein’s repositioning as a think tank in market research, with the aim of promoting the long-term independent growth of GfK SE. His thinking has always centered on the people working at GfK.

Peter Zühlsdorff has made a decisive contribution to the GfK Group’s development from being a local to becoming a global company, which today achieves sales of €1.4 billion (2011) and employs more than 12,000 staff worldwide. His outstanding achievements include the Company’s IPO in 1999, which enabled GfK to expand and globalize its business.

Matthias Hartmann, CEO of GfK SE, emphasized that “as the representative of the majority shareholder, Peter Zühlsdorff has played a decisive role in co-determining GfK’s course on several occasions. He repeatedly took the helm, including in very difficult times. The fact that the GfK Group is now well positioned as a global player is largely also thanks to his contribution. We wish Peter Zühlsdorff all the best.”

The shareholder in Deutsche Industrieholding and former Chief Executive Officer of Wella AG looks back on a long and successful career with many mandates on supervisory boards and advisory boards of major German companies, such as Merck, Deutz and Escada. He was a member of the Management Board of Wella AG for 17 years, five of which as CEO. In 1999, he took over Deutsche Industrieholding, which he headed up for ten years as managing partner. As chief manager of Tengelmann, he succeeded in restructuring the company. However, his longest commitment has been to GfK, where he has successfully contributed to advancing the company’s development for 26 years. The Board, the Shareholders’ Council and the Administrative Board of the GfK Verein as well as the Management Board and Supervisory Board of GfK SE thank Peter Zühlsdorff for his outstanding achievements.

Prof. Hubert Weiler, Supervisory Board Chairman of UNIVERSA Versicherungen and former CEO of Sparkasse Nürnberg, will take over Peter Zühlsdorff’s role in the GfK Verein on 1 January 2013 until the new election, which will take place on 5 July 2013 as part of the next Meeting of Members. Prof. Weiler was elected Vice President of the GfK Verein at the beginning of 2009. He is a strong, experienced leader and will chair the Board, successfully continuing the new direction and supporting GfK SE’s ongoing development.

The corporate bodies of the GfK Verein regret that Peter Zühlsdorff has been forced to resign as President on health grounds. They are grateful that he will continue to support the Company in an advisory capacity and wish him all the best.

The GfK Verein was established in 1934 as a non-profit organization for the promotion of market research. Its membership consists of approximately 600 companies and individuals. The purpose of the Verein is to develop innovative research methods in close cooperation with academic institutions, to promote the training and further education of market researchers, to observe the structures and developments in society, the economy and politics that play a key role in private consumption, and to research their effects on consumers. Survey results are made available to the membership free of charge. The GfK Verein is a shareholder in GfK SE.
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GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than 12,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2011, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.37 billion. 
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