Marc Walder (born 19 August 1965) is a Swiss

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, media executive and former professional tennis player. He is

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and Managing Partner of

Ringier Ringier is a media group operating in multiple countries with over 6,500 employees. Founded in 1833, the family-owned business manages media brands across print and digital, TV and radio, and is active in the entertainment and digital marketplac ...

and Chairman of the Group Executive Board.

Life

Walder was a professional tennis player on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

from 1984 to 1991. His best ranking in Switzerland was 7, while his top results in the ATP world rankings were 170 (doubles) and 575 (singles), respectively. In 1989, he was double Swiss tennis champion at indoor and outdoor doubles. In 2008 he completed the Advanced Executive Management Program at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

in Boston. Marc Walder lives near

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, with his wife and two daughters.

Ringier AG

Following eight years as a tennis pro, Walder embarked on a career at

Ringier AG Ringier is a media group operating in multiple countries with over 6,500 employees. Founded in 1833, the family-owned business manages media brands across print and digital, TV and radio, and is active in the entertainment and digital marketplac ...

, a Swiss media enterprise, in 1991. He trained at the Ringier School of Journalism in 1993-94. Walder was deputy

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the Sunday tabloid ''

SonntagsBlick ''Blick'' (View) is a Swiss German-language daily newspaper and online news website covering current affairs, entertainment, sports and lifestyle. Based in Zurich, it is the largest newspaper in Switzerland with a print circulation of around 28 ...

'' from 1997 to 1999 and headed the sports desk at the daily tabloid Blick and SonntagsBlick from 1999 to 2000. During the years 2000 to 2006, Walder served as editor-in-chief of ''

Schweizer Illustrierte ''Schweizer Illustrierte'' is a weekly illustrated news magazine owned by Swiss media company Ringier. History and profile ''Schweizer Illustrierte'' was established in 1911 as ''Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung (SIZ)'', and adopted its current n ...

''. He went on to become editor-in-chief of SonntagsBlick while simultaneously heading the

newspaper division. On 1 September 2008 Marc Walder took over as

of Ringier Switzerland on the Group Executive Board. As a media executive, Walder is committed to a strategy of diversification. Under his guidance Ringier has supplemented its core business (newspapers, magazines, printing plants) by investing in entertainment (events, ticketing, radio, television) and transaction-based Internet business (online marketplaces, e-commerce). On 5 April 2012 Walder was appointed CEO of Ringier AG and became Chairman of the Group Executive Board. Until March 2013 he additionally served as CEO Ringier Publishing. In 2016, he was jointly responsible for setting up the

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

br>Ringier Axel Springer Schweiz AG
and Admeira, a joint marketing organization of

and

Swisscom Swisscom is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located in Worblaufen near Bern. The Swiss government owns 51% of Swisscom. According to its own published data, Swisscom holds a market share of 56% for mob ...

. On 30 January 2018, at the Ringier Management Conference, it was announced that Marc Walder had acquired 10 percent of the shares of the company, thus becoming a Managing Partner.

Digital Switzerland

Walder initiated the «Digital Zurich 2025» project in 2013. Together with representatives of the city, the canton and business leaders, Zurich is to become the digital capital of Europe. In 2016, the initiative was extended to the whole of Switzerland in order to make even greater use of the local advantage. At the same time, «Digital Zurich 2025» was renamed into «digitalswitzerland». In 2017, Walder initiated the first Swiss Digital Day, which took place on November 21. On 25 October 2018 the second edition of the Swiss Digital Day took place under the motto «experience digital together». The third Digital Day took place on 3 September 2019 under the motto "Dialogue and the Discussion of Digitization". This time, the nationwide action day was dedicated to the topic of "lifelong learning". With this initiative Walder wants to encourage the Swiss population to lifelong learning. One day before the third Digital Day, on 2 September 2019, the first Swiss Global Digital Summit took place. Walder and Federal President

Ueli Maurer Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer (; born 1 December 1950) is a Swiss politician who served as a List of members of the Swiss Federal Council, Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2009 to 2022. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was Pres ...

invited leading representatives from business and science to Geneva. The aim of this meeting was the launch of the Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI), which in the coming years should contribute to a fair approach in the digital world as well. Walder serves as President of the

Steering Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

and as a member of the executive committee at digitalswitzerland. At the Digital Economy Award Night 2019, Walder was awarded the «Digital Economy Ambassador» prize. He was honored for his commitment to the Swiss economy and the ICT industry. The fourth edition of the Swiss Digital Days took place from 1 to 3 November 2020. For the first time, the event was spread over several days due to its importance and size. This year, Walder again announced major news regarding the "digitalswitzerland" location initiative. His aim is to extend the initiative to Europe. The following representatives were invited and joined the European alliance: Besides Marc Walder and Ivo Furrer - President of digitalswitzerland, these are Marcus Wallenberg - Chairman of the SEB and co-founder of the Swedish Digitaltag Initiative Digital@Idag, Susanne Ackum - President Future Work Forum Sweden, Nebojša Đurđević - CEO Digital Serbia Initiative, Dipl.-Vw. Klemens Himpele - CIO of the City of Vienna; Aleksander Kutela - President of the Board of Directors of the Digital Poland Foundation, Constantine Vasuk - Director of the IT Ukraine Association and Patrick Stahl - Co-Managing Director digital-liechtenstein.li.

Board Memberships

Marc Walder is a board member of several subsidiary companies within the diversified Ringier media enterprise. He is Chairman of the Board at ''Admeira AG'', which belongs to the two main shareholders ''

'' and ''

'', ''Ringier Sports AG'', ''Ringier Africa AG, the daily newspaper

Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...

SA'' and the online classifieds platform ''Scout24 Schweiz AG'.'' Walder serves as the Deputy Chairman at the ''Ticketcorner AG'' and at the ''Ringier Axel Springer Schweiz AG'', the joint venture between Ringier and German media enterprise

Axel Springer SE Axel Springer SE () is a European multinational corporation, multinational mass media, mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketi ...

and as a member of the board of directors for the ''Ringier Axel Springer Media AG''. He is a member of the Board of ''JobCloud AG'', ''Marquard Media AG'', '' Sportradar Holding AG'', the Executive Advisory Board of WORLD.MINDS as well as a trustee of the ''Laureus Foundation Switzerland''. In May 2012, Walder joined the directorate of the ''Schweizerische Management Gesellschaft'' (Swiss Management). In June 2017 Walder was at the constituent meeting of the Advisory Council on Digital Transformation of the

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand co ...

, of which he is still a member today.

References

External links

World.Minds - Marc Walder
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of the foundation Pro Juventute (German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Walder, Marc 1965 births Swiss journalists Swiss male tennis players Living people Swiss chief executives 20th-century Swiss sportsmen