Compensation of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA for the financial year 2017 amounted to €1,875,167 plus statutory value-added tax. Members of the Executive Board received total remuneration in the reporting period of €28,926,652, including €16,966,406 from Bertelsmann Management SE. Former members of the Executive Board of Bertelsmann Management SE and Bertelsmann AG and their surviving dependents received compensation of €11,511,599, including €11,125,937 from Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA. The provision for pension obligations to former members of the Executive Board of Bertelsmann AG and Bertelsmann Management SE accrued at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Bertelsmann Management SE amounts to €78,419,242. The members of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board are listed in „Boards/Mandates“.

The fees for the Group auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft totaled €7 million during the financial year, of which €6 million was due to fees for the audit of the financial statements. PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft was paid a total of €1 million for other audit-related services, for tax consulting services and for further services. The audit fees primarily include fees for the auditors’ review of the interim consolidated financial statements and the consolidated financial statements and the audit of the separate financial statements of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and its subsidiaries. The auditrelated fees mainly cover statutory or voluntarily mandated attestation services by the auditor. Fees for other services mainly cover fees for project-related consulting services.

The following table shows the number of employees as of December 31, 2017, and on an annual average:

Number of Employees

Number of employees
(closing date)
Number of employees
(average)
RTL Group12,37612,433
Penguin Random House10,61510,646
Gruner + Jahr10,55110,820
BMG733692
Arvato72,93171,613
Bertelsmann Printing Group8,2618,366
Bertelsmann Education Group1,6391,633
Bertelsmann Investments2929
Corporate1,9542,562
Total119,089118,794