Thomas Rabe (born August 6, 1965, in Luxembourg) is a German business executive.^[1] In 2006, he was appointed to the Bertelsmann executive board, of which he has been chairman and chief executive officer since 2012.^[2][3] Under his leadership, the group has become more international, more digital and more diversified.^[4][5] In particular, he has advanced the business with music rights and the educational division.^[6] Additionally, Rabe was appointed chief executive officer of RTL Group in 2019.^[7]

Rabe was born in 1965 in Luxembourg and grew up in Brussels,^[8][9] where his father worked as a civil servant in the European Coal and Steel Community from 1968.^[10] He attended the European School and as a youth was a bass player in a punk band.^[11] After completing his German baccalaureate (Abitur), Rabe studied Business and Economics at the RWTH Aachen and the University of Cologne.^[12] After earning a degree in business administration in 1989, he obtained his doctorate in economics, with a doctoral thesis on "Liberalization and Deregulation in the European Single Market for Insurance" in 1995.^[13]

In addition to his native language German, Rabe speaks English, French, Dutch and Spanish.^[14]

Rabe began his career at the European Commission in Brussels. At the Commission, from 1989 he worked in the Directorate-General for Financial Institutions and Corporate Law.^[10] One year later, he joined his supervisor in moving to the law firm Forrester, Norall & Sutton,^[15] which today belongs to White & Case.^[16] There he managed client accounts from the European Union, the United States and Japan.^[15] In 1991, Rabe was employed by the Treuhand agency in Berlin.^[17] In this capacity, among other responsibilities, he was in charge of the privatization of the assets of the Ministry for State Security and the National People's Army of the former GDR.^[18] In 1993, he was promoted to head of the Controlling Department.^[12] Subsequently, Rabe was involved as head of acquisitions at the Beteiligungsgesellschaft Neue Länder investment agency of the Association of German Banks (BdB),^[13] in investing DM 400 million in East German companies.^[18] After earning his Ph.D., in 1996 Rabe was hired as office head of the CEO of the Luxembourg financial service provider, Cedel International.^[15][18] He held additional positions there before being appointed chief financial officer in 1998.^[19] In subsequent years, he prepared the merger of Cedel International with Deutsche Börse Clearing into Clearstream.^[18]

In 2000, Rabe joined RTL Group as CFO.^[13] Here, he was additionally responsible for strategy and the Luxembourg television and radio business.^[20] Five years later, Bertelsmann brought him back to Gütersloh.^[21][22][23] Rabe was appointed as the group's CFO on January 1, 2006.^[24] At the same time, he was responsible for the Bertelsmann Music Group until 2008.^[13] Among other activities, Rabe also negotiated the buyback of shares from Groupe Bruxelles Lambert to prevent Bertelsmann from going public.^[11][25] In addition, the group established its own investment fund in Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments.^[26] Later, Rabe organized the return of Bertelsmann into the music business.^[27] His recruitment of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as an investor in BMG Rights Management was seen as a key decision for the music company's future development.^[1]

Around 2009 Rabe was reportedly considered as future CEO of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media group and of the Franz Haniel & Cie. investment holding,^[28] but Rabe ultimately stayed with Bertelsmann.^[29][30]

CEO of Bertelsmann, 2012–present

After Hartmut Ostrowski announced his retirement as chairman and CEO in 2011,^[31] Rabe was declared his successor, effective January 1, 2012.^[32][33] With Rabe's appointment, Bertelsmann ushered in a strategy change towards stronger growth.^[34][35][36] Under his leadership, Bertelsmann experienced increased growth into Brazil, China, and India, and consolidated this development by bundling these activities in the Bertelsmann Investments division.^[37][38] Also, Rabe managed to complete the merger of Penguin Books with Random House to create the world's largest trade book publisher, and the purchase of the remaining shares in Gruner + Jahr.^[39][40] He built the education division into an additional pillar of the business,^[41][42] which today operates as the Bertelsmann Education Group.^[43] He consolidated the printing operations into the Bertelsmann Printing Group.^[44] Thus, by 2016, he had expanded the number of corporate divisions to eight.^[45][46]

Rabe's contract as chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann's executive board runs until 2021.^[47][48] As CEO of RTL Group, he oversees the company's TV unit;^[49] he is a member of the board of directors of Penguin Random House, among others.^[50]

Corporate boards

• Adidas, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2019)^[51]
• Penguin Random House, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2018)
• Gruner + Jahr, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2012)
• RTL Group, Chief Executive Officer (since 2019) and Member of the Board of Directors (since 2012)^[49]
• Symrise (2011–2019), Chairman of the Supervisory Board^[52]
• Springer Science+Business Media, Member of Supervisory Board (since 2010)

Non-profit boards

• Federation of German Industries (BDI), Member of the Presidium (2017-2018)^[53]
• Baden-Badener Unternehmer-Gespräche (BBUG), Member of the Board of Trustees^[54]

Rabe lives in Gütersloh and Berlin and is married to a neurologist.^[55][56] The couple collects modern art and, in 2015, purchased a Henry van de Velde-designed villa in Tervuren near Brussels.^[57]

Rabe is a member of the Catholic fraternity AV Hansea-Berlin zu Köln.^[58]