• Since July 15, 2017, Stefanie Rupp-Menedetter has been Deputy Corporate Spokeswoman, heading corporate and financial communications

Munich, July 19, 2017. As of October 1, 2017, Merlin Koene (47) will manage ProSiebenSat.1 Group's communications as Executive Vice President and Corporate Spokesman. The international communications expert is taking over the responsibility from Ralf Peter Gierig, Deputy Group CFO, Executive Vice President Group Finance & Investor Relations, who has headed the department on an interim basis since end of April 2017. Merlin Koene will report directly to CEO Thomas Ebeling.

Merlin Koene started his professional career as a journalist, including working as a reporter for CNN, 3sat, ORF and Spiegel-TV. As Head of Reuters Business TV, he regularly reported to camera on economic matters for BBC World and n-tv. After working at the global strategic communications consultancy CNC, he moved into the field of corporate communications. In the last eight years, Merlin Koene worked at Unilever, most recently as Director of Sustainable Business & Communications and member of the management board, and was responsible for external and internal communications as well as public affairs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Last year, he headed up global media relations and financial communications on an interim basis for Unilever in London and was also jointly responsible for the digital communications strategy.

Merlin Koene will be supported in his work at ProSiebenSat.1 by Stefanie Rupp-Menedetter (36), who started as Deputy Corporate Spokeswoman on July 15, 2017 and heads corporate and financial communications. Rupp-Menedetter was previously Head of Communications at Allianz Capital Partners.

Thomas Ebeling, CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE: 'With Merlin Koene, we have gained a passionate communicator for ProSiebenSat.1. Thanks to his more than 20 years of expertise in international companies, his many years of management experience and his excellent network, he is the ideal appointment as our Corporate Spokesman. I am convinced that he will have a significant communicative influence on ProSiebenSat.1's ongoing transformation and I am very much looking forward to working with him. I also bid Stefanie Rupp-Menedetter a very warm welcome to ProSiebenSat.1. She has a great deal of experience, especially in capital market and financial communications, and will thus make our team even stronger. I also thank Ralf Peter Gierig very much for successfully assuming responsibility for Group Communications on an interim basis in addition to his other duties and for further managing the communications department until Merlin Koene's start.'

Merlin Koene: 'ProSiebenSat.1 is an extremely exciting and dynamic company with a lot of potential. I am very much looking forward to working with the team to support the further digital transformation of one of the most successful independent media companies in Europe with a strong presence in the entertainment and commerce business.'

ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE published this content on 19 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 July 2017 08:18:10 UTC.

Original documenthttp://www.prosiebensat1.de/en/press/merlin-koene-to-become-new-corporate-spokesman-at-prosiebensat-1-media-se-as-of-october-1-2017

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