The general partner, Bertelsmann Management SE, represented by its Executive Board, is responsible for independently managing the company. The duties consist of determining the corporate objectives, the strategic direction of the Group, Group management, management training, and corporate planning and financing. The Executive Board provides the respective Supervisory Boards with regular, prompt and comprehensive reports on all matters that are relevant to business development and strategy implementation, planning, financial and earnings position, the risk situation, and risk management. It ensures compliance with the provisions of law and corporate guidelines within the Group. The members of the Executive Board bear joint responsibility for the overall management. Matters of fundamental significance and matters concerning the spheres of responsibility of a number of Executive Board members are addressed by the overall Executive Board. Notwithstanding this overall responsibility, the individual members of the Executive Board manage their departments as part of the duties stipulated by the overall Executive Board. The Executive Board Chairman coordinates 136 Corporate Governance the cooperation within the Executive Board and between the Executive Board and the Supervisory Boards, and has regular consultation meetings with the chairs of the two Supervisory Boards. In addition, the Executive Board has established the Group Management Committee (GMC), which advises on important corporate strategy and development matters and other issues that affect the Group as a whole. GMC currently has 16 members and is composed of all the members of the Executive Board and executives representing key businesses, countries, regions and selected Group-wide functions.

The Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA supervises the management of the business by the general partner and uses its extensive information and control rights for this purpose. In addition, the Supervisory Boards advise the Executive Board on strategic matters and significant transactions. The Executive and Supervisory Boards work in close, trusting cooperation and are able to reconcile the demands of effective corporate governance with the need for rapid decision-making processes. Fundamental matters of corporate strategy and their implementation are discussed openly and coordinated in joint sessions. Any significant measures to be taken by the Executive Board are subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board reviews the Annual and Consolidated Financial Statements, the Combined Management Report of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and the Group, and the proposal for the appropriation of net retained earnings. It approves the Annual Financial Statements of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and the Consolidated Financial Statements, taking into account the results of the preliminary review conducted by the Audit and Finance Committee and the audit reports prepared by the auditor. The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Bertelsmann Management SE shareholders exercise their rights and vote at the respective General Meetings. The General Meetings vote on matters such as amendments to the articles of association and the appropriation of net income, and elect the members of the respective Supervisory Boards. The members of the Executive and Supervisory Boards are obliged to serve the company’s best interests in their work. For some time, the delegation of tasks to committees of experts has been an integral component of the Supervisory Boards’ work at Bertelsmann. It serves to increase the monitoring efficiency and advisory expertise of the Supervisory Boards. The Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann Management SE has formed a Personnel Committee and a Program Committee, and the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA has formed an Audit and Finance Committee and the Working Group of Employee and Management Representatives. The tasks of a Nomination Committee were also assigned to the Personnel Committee, in which capacity it recommends to the plenary session of the Supervisory Board suitable candidates at the General Meeting. The Program Committee, instead of the Supervisory Board, decides on the approval of the Supervisory Board to enter into program supply deals – for example, for feature films, series or sports rights. The Audit and Finance Committee of the Supervisory Board of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA is also involved in the accounting process and monitors the effectiveness of the risk monitoring and risk management system, the internal control system and the internal auditing system. Furthermore, it addresses issues relating to compliance, in particular the effectiveness and proper functioning of the compliance organization and the related topic of integrity within the Group. These committees prepare the topics to be addressed during the plenary meetings of the Supervisory Boards. The committee chairs or, where applicable, their representatives then report to the plenary meetings on the work performed. The Supervisory Boards’ decision-making powers have been transferred to the committees to the extent permitted by law. The breadth and range of responsibilities and tasks delegated to these committees are continuously reviewed through various evaluation processes. The appropriate size of the Supervisory Boards and the experience and professional expertise of their members, who are drawn from a broad range of industries and areas of activity, are key factors in the effectiveness and independence of the work carried out by the Supervisory Board and reflect the specific ownership structure at Bertelsmann. With the exception of Supervisory Board members who are also members of the Mohn family (Dr. Brigitte Mohn, Christoph Mohn, Liz Mohn) and the employee representatives on the Supervisory Board (Kai Brettmann, Murat Cetin, Helmut Gettkant, Christiane Sussieck) or the representative of the Bertelsmann Management Representative Committee BMRC (Ian Hudson), the Supervisory Board considers all other members of the Supervisory Board (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Werner Bauer, Dr. Thomas Buberl, Bernd Leukert, Gigi Levy-Weiss, Hans Dieter Pötsch, Kasper Rorsted, Bodo Uebber) to be independent for the purposes of the German Corporate Governance Code. As a result, the Supervisory Board believes it has an appropriate number of independent members among the shareholders. For details of the work of the Supervisory Board, please refer to the Report of the Supervisory Board.

At a global company like Bertelsmann, diversity within the workforce is a key element for the Group’s ability to innovate and for long-term economic success in its various markets.

That is why Bertelsmann is pursuing the goal of promoting staff diversity in all of its various facets and is ascribing high importance to increasing diversity. A cross-divisional, international working group has been tasked with promoting diversity at all levels of the company (see “Combined Non-Financial Statement” within the Combined Management Report). This includes a focus on increasing diversity within senior management. For a number of years now, the Executive Board has always included at least one female member. The 16 members of the senior management of the GMC originate from six different nations. Five members of this committee are women. The Supervisory Board believes that within the company suitable measures must be taken in the area of succession planning, management development and the selection processes to achieve the aim of equal participation within the workforce.

Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA is an unlisted company and is not subject to parity codetermination. The “Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sector Act” does not apply to the two Supervisory Board bodies. However, Bertelsmann does support the objectives of the act. Both Supervisory Boards are largely composed of professionally qualified and capable members with management experience, representing various countries and a broad range of backgrounds and lifestyles. There is a significant proportion of female members on the Supervisory Board, and the aim is to ensure that this proportion will not be reduced when new members are appointed. The Supervisory Board shall not set any target quota for women on the Supervisory Board until further notice. When nominating candidates for election as new members of the Supervisory Board, consideration is always given to the aim of increasing the proportion of female members or members from other countries in order to reflect the international nature of Bertelsmann’s business – ideally in the growth markets.

Corporate responsibility, lawful behavior and acting with integrity toward employees, customers, business partners and government agencies are an integral part of our value system at Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann has always been committed to the principle of adhering to laws and has internal policies on the prevention of risks and their consequences.

To ensure compliance, the Executive Board has established a compliance organization and the Integrity & Compliance program. It oversees this program and ensures that it is continuously improved. The Supervisory Board Audit and Finance Committee monitors the effectiveness and proper functioning of the compliance organization. The Executive Board established the Corporate Compliance Committee (CCC). Each year, the CCC submits an extensive report about compliance within the Group to the Executive and Supervisory Boards. It also provides ad hoc reports to the Executive and Supervisory Boards in the event of any significant compliance violations. The CCC is responsible for the effectiveness of measures designed to ensure compliance and for promoting a culture of integrity and compliant conduct within the Bertelsmann Group. In particular, the CCC monitors investigations into compliance violations and the measures taken to prevent violations. The Integrity & Compliance department is responsible for the day-to-day work to ensure compliance, implementing Board-mandated compliance initiatives and managing the whistleblowing systems.

The Bertelsmann Integrity & Compliance program is based on the relevant standards for compliance management systems and helps to mitigate risks in various ways. Its basic elements include, in particular, the Bertelsmann Code of Conduct, risk analysis, advice, communication and training measures, whistleblowing systems that give employees and third parties the opportunity to report misconduct within the company without fear of reprisal, and case management. It also includes additional measures in specific subject areas, such as anticorruption, antitrust law, foreign trade law and antidiscrimination..

The Executive Board has continuously developed and expanded Bertelsmann’s compliance structure and organization over time, including during the financial year 2017. In 2017, Code of Conduct training for employees continued. Additional training was offered on topics such as anticorruption, antitrust law, foreign trade law, business partner compliance and antidiscrimination. Over the last few years the interlinks between the compliance organization and the risk management system have been strengthened and the Supplier Code of Conduct has been approved. Guidelines on the compliance organization, the future role of local Integrity & Compliance Officers and a revised version of the anticorruption and integrity guideline were adopted in 2017.

All reports of compliance violations received were investigated and appropriate actions were taken. The report also included suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of measures designed to ensure compliance.

Executive Board
Supervisory Board