Christoph Mohn (born ) is a German businessman.
In 2013, he became chairman of the
supervisory board of
Bertelsmann
The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Bertelsmann (), is a German privately held company, private multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, ...
. Since 2021, he has also been Chairman of the Steering Committee of Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft (BVG) and has assumed the role of family spokesperson there.
Moreover, Mohn chairs the
executive board of the Reinhard Mohn Foundation and is on the board of trustees of the
Bertelsmann Stiftung
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent Foundation (nonprofit), foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. The foundati ...
.
Family
Mohn is one of six children of media businessman
Reinhard Mohn, who died in 2009. Up until 2021, his mother,
Liz Mohn, was chairwoman of the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft, representing the fifth generation of the business-owning family.
The parents had married in the year 1982, and Reinhard Mohn then adopted their mutual children
Brigitte, Christoph and .
During his studies, Mohn met Indian mathematician Shobhna. The couple are married and have three daughters.
Education
After earning his German baccalaureate (Abitur) at the Städtisches Gymnasium in
Gütersloh
Gütersloh () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the administrative region of Detmold (administrative region), Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a Gütersloh (distric ...
, Mohn completed his military service.
In 1985, he took up studies in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing, at the
University of Münster
The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...
.
Career
Mohn started his career in 1992 at
Bertelsmann Music Group
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008.
Although it was established in 1987, the music c ...
in Hong Kong and New York City. After three years, Mohn switched over to the
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...
consulting firm in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
. There, he monitored trends and developments surrounding the Internet and new media. Mohn returned to Gütersloh in 1996 and worked for the multimedia division at Bertelsmann,
which was headed by
Thomas Middelhoff at that time. As Vice President of the subsidiary
Telemedia
Telemedia was a Canadian media company, which had holdings in radio, television and magazine publishing.
The company was launched in 1968 by Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, when he purchased CKAC in Montreal from Power Corporation of Canada. CKAC r ...
, he helped expand the company's online business.
Lycos Europe
Mohn assisted in establishing a joint venture between Bertelsmann and
Lycos
Lycos, Inc. (stylized as LYCOS), is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company ...
,
and in 1997, he became chief executive officer (CEO) of
Lycos Europe
Lycos Europe was a pan-European network of websites, offering services including communication tools, online communities, web search, e-commerce, web hosting, homepage building and Internet access. It was an independent corporation, sharing no c ...
. For a certain period, Lycos Europe was the most successful Internet portal in Europe. Mohn took the company public in the year 2000, and due to a difficult market environment after the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
burst, he instituted comprehensive restructuring measures. In 2008, the owners decided to wind up Lycos Europe.
Bertelsmann
From 2001 to 2007, Mohn was a member of the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft.
It controls the
voting rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in ...
of Mohn family members and foundations having indirect shareholdings in Bertelsmann. After the death of Reinhard Mohn in the year 2009, his son Christoph assumed his position in the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft, now representing the sixth generation of the Mohn family.
Since 2006, Mohn has been a member of the Bertelsmann Supervisory Board, ending speculation about a possible move to the Executive Board. In this way, the family also expanded its influence on Bertelsmann. Finally, in 2013, Mohn became Chairman of the Supervisory Board. In this position, he has been supporting the transformation of the Group, under the leadership of
Thomas Rabe, who became CEO in 2012.
In 2021, upon reaching the age of 80 years, Liz Mohn stepped down from the executive bodies of Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft. Christoph Mohn then took over the chairmanship of the Steering Committee and the duties of Speaker of the family there.
Other activities
In the year 2009, Mohn became a member of the Board of Trustees of the
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
Bertelsmann Stiftung. In 2010, he also took over the chairmanship of the Reinhard Mohn Foundation established back in 2006, dedicated to the lifetime achievements of Reinhard Mohn.
As an investor, Mohn also supports start-up companies in their early stages and in building up their business.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohn, Christoph
Christoph
Bertelsmann people
German mass media owners
German billionaires
1965 births
Living people
20th-century German businesspeople
21st-century German businesspeople
Businesspeople from Stuttgart
University of Münster alumni