GfK CEO Peter Feld to Leave in March

GfK CEO Peter Feld has decided not to seek an extension to his contract, and will leave the company on March 14th. CFO Lars Nordmark will step into the Chief Exec role on an interim basis, while COO Joshua Hubbert has been added to the Management Board.

In February 2017, GfK shareholders accepted an offer from US-based private equity firm KKR to buy 18.54% of the business, following what it described as a 'difficult year'. A month later, Feld (pictured) joined, and the company then announced a transformation and investment programme, aimed at focusing on customer needs, accelerating digitization and getting the company 'back on a sustainable growth path'. Under Feld's watch, GfK sold its Custom Research operations in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, excluding its Retail and Technology arm, to full-service agency RAIT; and it sold four global divisions of GfK Custom Business Research - Customer Experience, Experience Innovation, Health, and Public Affairs - to Ipsos.

GfK says that following its restructuring the company ended 2021 with 'high single-digit percentage growth in net sales', and has become 'highly profitable' again. According to the firm, a key element of its transformation strategy has been based on its digital AI-powered insights and analytics platform gfknewron, which offers access to data from more than 100,000 retailers with around 180 million products tracked over more than 50 countries.

In a statement, Feld said he was very thankful for the past five years at GfK, working closely with an 'incredible team', and that this team can look back on a successful transformation - with the 2021 results a testament to the group's readiness to continue on its path towards becoming an integrated data, analytic and consulting firm. Thomas Ebeling, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GfK SE, adds: 'Peter and his team have successfully navigated GfK through challenging times and the company is much stronger today than it was five years ago. We are committed to continue the path which he started and to further lead GfK into the next chapter of AI-powered analytics and industry-leading technology'.

Web site: www.gfk.com .