Hausruckinger Leaves GfK; CMIO Joins

Senior GfK Leader Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger has resigned from the company after seven years on the Management Board. Meanwhile Christoph D. Erbenich has been appointed as Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer.

The global group said Hausruckinger had 'reached a mutual agreement to resign' from his office as member of the Management Board responsible for the Consumer Choices sector - added to his role in 2016. He joined to lead GfK's Retail & Technology business in 2010, taking a seat on the group's Management Board in that year, and recently he served as its interim speaker following the sudden departure of CEO Matthias Hartmann last summer.

Chairman Ralf Klein-Bölting said: 'On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board I would like to thank Dr. Hausruckinger for the long-standing collaboration as well as his great willingness to take over the responsibility as temporary board spokesman in the difficult situation during the summer of 2016. We always valued him as a colleague. For his personal and professional future we would like to wish him all the best and every success'.

New CEO Peter Feld will take on Dr. Hausruckinger's responsibilities on an interim basis.


Separately, GfK has appointed Christoph D. Erbenich in the newly created role of Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, which he takes up on August 1st. Erbenich, who has spent thirteen of the last fifteen years as a Partner at McKinsey, is charged with co-ordinating the Group's innovations and ensuring they are geared towards client-centric solutions. He joins the Executive Leadership Team and will report to Feld.

His previous roles also include CMO at digital maps provider Nokia HERE, and four years as Marketing Director at L'Oreal. Feld describes Erbenich as 'a digital thought leader and high class marketing professional' and says he will 'help GfK understand its customers even better than before and transform it into an agile and digital company'.

Web site: www.gfk.com .