Gunter Thielen (born 4 August 1942 in

Quierschied Quierschied is a municipality in the district of Saarbrücken, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately 11 km northeast of the city of Saarbrücken. Notable people *Bruno Simma (born 29 March 1941), a German jurist who served as a ...

) was chairman and chief executive officer of the

Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself h ...

. He graduated from

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

with a PhD in mechanical engineering and economics. He was a manager at

BASF BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The ...

from 1970 to 1976 and a technical director at the Wintershall refinery from 1976 to 1980. He was chief executive officer of

Arvato AG Arvato is a global services company headquartered in Gütersloh, Germany. Its services include customer support, information technology, logistics, and finance. The history of Arvato goes back to the printing and industry services division of Be ...

, from 1985 to 2001. He was

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Bertelsmann AG from August 2002 until January 2008 when he was succeeded by

Hartmut Ostrowski Hartmut Ostrowski (born 25 February 1958 in Bielefeld) was CEO of Bertelsmann AG from 1 January 2008 until 31 December 2011, succeeding Gunter Thielen. Ostrowski studied business administration at Bielefeld University and joined Bertelsmann AG in ...

. In 2005, he received the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Global Leadership Award. He is on the International Advisory Board of the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thielen, Gunter 1942 births Living people German chief executives People from Saarbrücken RWTH Aachen University alumni