Corporate Governance

Preserving what is good and developing something new. Our Corporate Management makes common cause for the good of the company.


The Executive Board Team

The Executive Board Team

We at Bastei Lübbe AG work as a team. Also on the Executive Board. Soheil Dastyari has been our CEO since 2022. Simon Decot is responsible for the programme. Sandra Dittert is responsible for marketing, sales, press and novel booklets. Mathis Gerkensmeyer has been Chief Financial Officer of Bastei Lübbe AG since 1 September 2023 and is responsible for Accounting & Controlling, Group Accounting, IT, Production, Contract Management & Legal. 

The Executive Board Team

© Katrin Menke

Soheil Dastyari

Soheil Dastyari, born in 1972, began his career as a strategic planner at the communications agency Lintas after studying applied cultural studies with a focus on business administration as well as media and communication studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg, before working in various positions in Hamburg, Berlin and New York City at the agency FCB Global from 1999 to 2006, most recently as Managing Director Germany. In 2007, Soheil Dastyari moved to the media company Gruner + Jahr GmbH & Co KG, Hamburg, where he initially headed the brand and innovation development, later the corporate media division, and was finally Managing Director Germany at publishing houses including Capital and the Stern Group. From 2016 to 2021, Soheil Dastyari was the founding CEO of the communications service provider Territory, under whose umbrella the Bertelsmann Group bundled all companies in the content communications sector and restructured them on the market. After leaving Bertelsmann, he worked as a management consultant before becoming CEO of the Issuer from March 2022.

Soheil Dastyari

© Kathrin Menke

Simon Decot

• Born July 14th 1970• Apprenticeship as bookseller at Suhrkamp Verlag (Frankfurt/Main)• Master in General and Comparative Literature and Journalism (Berlin)• 2000 - 2003 Product Manager Fiction at bol.de, then Bertelsmann (Munich)• 2003 – 2004 Product Manager Fiction and Audio Books at Weltbild (Augsburg)• 2004 – 2014 Editorial Director Fiction and Audio Books at Weltbild (Augsburg)• 2014 – 2015 Editorial Director for Narrative Children's and Youth's Books at Ravensburger AG (Ravensburg)• 2015 – 2018 Publishing Director Digital Content and from 2016 also Publishing Director of LYX at Bastei Lübbe AG• 2018 – 2020 Publishing Strategy Director at Bastei Lübbe AG• Since April 2020 member of the Issuer's Executive Board. 

Simon Decot

© Olivier Favre

Sandra Dittert

Sandra Dittert, born in 1969, studied business administration at the University of Frankfurt a.M. She started her professional career in 1996 with the Hamburg located pay-TV channel Premiere in program marketing. She then worked for some 18 years in various management positions at the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, most recently as Senior Vice President German Trade Publishing, being responsible for sales, marketing and digital business. During this time she founded the startup lovelybooks.de and, as managing director, successfully developed it into the largest German-language reader and author network. She was a founding and supervisory board member of skoobe, the first eBook subscription model in the German-speaking book market. Since April 2017, Sandra Dittert has been managing director of the Haufe Group, responsible for the professional and journalistic editorial departments, content marketing, content engineering & development, as well as publishing and sales. She developed the digitalization of content products, business models and value-added processes. Since August 2020, Sandra Dittert is a member of the Issuer's Executive Board. She is responsible for the departments of marketing, sales, public relations, production, legal and contract management and novel booklets.

Sandra Dittert

© Olivier Favre

Mathis Gerkensmeyer

Mathis Gerkensmeyer, born in 1982, studied business administration with a focus on media management and corporate finance at the University of Cologne and Rotterdam School of Management. After working in the consulting and media industry during his studies, he joined Axel Springer SE in Hamburg in 2009 to support the group's digitisation strategy. In various positions, he was involved in particular in building up an investment portfolio of digital companies and finally worked as Head of Portfolio in Berlin since 2014. In spring 2015, he initially joined Runtastic GmbH in Linz, Austria, as Head of Finance. The company then became part of the adidas Group and Mathis Gerkensmeyer subsequently took on further areas of responsibility. Since 2019, he served as Managing Director / CFO and continuously developed the provider of mobile apps in the fitness sector. Since September 2023, Mathis Gerkensmeyer has been a member of the Executive Board of the Issuer and is responsible for the departments Accounting & Controlling, Group Accounting, IT, Manufacturing, Contract Management & Legal.

Mathis Gerkensmeyer

© Olivier Favre

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Our Supervisory Board

Carsten Dentler

Carsten Dentler has been managing partner of Palladio Infrastruktur GmbH since 2019. He has many years of transaction and management experience in the banking and capital markets business. Before joining Palladio Partners, he was responsible for building up and managing the M&A/IPO/DCM advisory business of a leading US investment bank and subsequently a large Swiss investment bank in Germany and Austria. His work spanned more than two decades, including 12 years as a responsible board member, and covered a spectrum of industries. The sectors of energy, chemicals, other energy-intensive activities and the associated critical infrastructure formed a substantive focus.Carsten Dentler began his career at Commerzbank AG with an apprenticeship as a banker. He then studied business administration at the University of Mannheim, graduating with a degree in business administration. His professional stations included Arthur Andersen GmbH, Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley Bank AG and UBS Deutschland AG.He is a member of several supervisory boards of listed as well as private companies.

Carsten Dentler

© Olivier Favre

Dr. Ralph Drouven

After studying law at the University of Cologne and the Université de Genève, Dr Ralph Drouven completed his legal traineeship at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. He was first admitted to the Cologne Regional Court and then to the Cologne Higher Regional Court as a lawyer. He completed his doctorate under Professor Dr. Gerhard Kegel, Director of the Institute for International and Foreign Private Law at the University of Cologne, on a subject of tort law in the USA. He has been working as a lawyer since 1986. He specialises in advising on corporate law and providing legal support for transactions. After being a partner in various leading commercial law firms since 1991, he founded the law firm Drouven Dietlein Rechtsanwälte PartmbB in 2023. From 1999 to 2022, he was chairman of the supervisory board of the listed Splendid Medien AG.

Dr. Ralph Drouven

Dr. Melanie Bockemühl

Dr Melanie Bockemühl has many years of experience in the implementation of strategy, business development and transformation programmes with a focus on digital and technology topics. As a senior partner at IBM Consulting, she led the strategy consulting and digital agencies division in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to that, she spent many years as a partner at Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company advising clients in the telecommunications, media and technology sectors, among others. Most recently, she worked as a business angel in the start-up environment and was responsible for Strategy & Transformation at Diebold Nixdorf. Dr Melanie Bockemühl studied business administration at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, completed an MBA at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and received her doctorate in Göttingen with a dissertation on "Real Option Theory and the Valuation of Product Innovations". She is now on the advisory board of the Faculty of Economic Sciences there.

Dr. Melanie Bockemühl

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