Axel Springer’s head of commerce, Michael von Stern, is moving to a new position at zanox where he will be both chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operations officer (COO).
It means that on Janruary 1 2014, Von Stern will step up to become part of the executive board at zanox, a company that’s majority owned by Axel Springer. He will be replacing Joachim Piroth who has held the position since June 2010.
The makeup of zanox is not new to Von Stern, according to its CEO, Thomas Joosten, as his current job sees him managing Springer’s commerce division, which the network makes an important contribution to.
“Michael von Stern has known our market, the company and the leadership team for a long time,” Joosten said. “His comprehensive professional, strategic and operative experience and know-how make him the ideal successor to Joachim Piroth.”
Engineering expertise
As a qualified engineer, von Stern has worked for the international strategy consultants, A.T. Kearney, for a venture capital company, and as CFO/COO of the current zanox subsidiary, eprofessional in the past.
It was his experience at eprofessional that led Ralph Büchi, chairman of the supervisory board at zanox, to give serious consideration to von Stern as a replacement for the soon-to-be-departing Piroth.
“Through his work as the head of eprofessional, he has precise knowledge of the operative challenges faced in the performance marketing business,” Büchi “As the head of the Axel Springer Commerce division, he accompanied the zanox Group’s development into a global online marketing firm.”
At the beginning of next year, the executive board at zanox will consist of Thomas Joosten (chief executive officer), Stefanie Lüdecke (chief sales officer), Michael von Stern (chief financial officer/chief operating officer) and Christian Rebernik (chief technology officer).