Springer: Van Maanen goes, Joachim Krieger comes
17.09.2013 16:02
Springer boss Harm van Maanen is leaving. In 2007 he became managing director of the “Ärzte Zeitung” in Neu-Isenburg and in 2009 took over responsibility for Springer Science+Business Media in Germany in the role of Executive Vice President for the “Professional Medicine” division. Since then, he has rebuilt the editorial logic of this classic publishing house, starting with the “Ärzte Zeitung”, in order to make this print publisher fit for the online future. Joachim Krieger, previously Executive Vice President Professional for the Transport and Automotive sector, will take over this job on September 18, 2013. Van Maanen, on the other hand, leaves the health sector and becomes managing director of Schlüterschen Verlagsgesellschaft. His new job description: similar to Springer's, only much more urgent. Schlütersche from Hanover is one of the largest yellow pages publishers in Germany and as such is affected by changing usage habits towards online much more than other media companies.
>> Founded as a landscape book printing company, the tradition of Schlüterschen Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG goes back to 1747. “The basis for this long success story was the ability to continuously develop, to question what already exists and to open up new markets” - this statement from a company that has seen itself as a media house for 260 years is practically written for van Maanen. Since his time as sales manager at Nemetschek Deutschland GmbH, the trained architect has done nothing other than change management, first for Nemetschek's architectural solutions and then at Springer. Van Maanen is certain that the path he took at Springer will continue; This is what his successor Krieger stands for, who has long since set the course towards online in the automotive sector with classic print titles such as “Autohaus”, “Auto Flotte” and “VerkehrsRundschau” and, above all, has brought the driving school business into the digital age. As early as 2010, he said in an interview about Konzertanz of print and online: “Our future as a publisher lies in the intelligent combination of both media, where we ideally combine the respective advantages of paper and the Internet for our customers.”
But then why is van Maanen leaving? This is primarily due to the fact that the Schütersche's offer came exactly at the time of another change of ownership at Springer Science and Business Media, which created both an optimal opportunity and a necessity for van Maanen to redefine his own personal goals. Today, the 46-year-old feels agile and young enough to take a step further in his career. “But what will happen in five to six years?” asked van Maanen, who completed his preliminary diploma in economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and then studied architecture at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. This 6-year period is no coincidence, but roughly corresponds to the amount of time he has been committed to Springer so far. And in which he had to report to changing controllers and international bosses.
This is exactly what has come to an end, because at Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft he is returning as one of the two managing directors in a medium-sized company that already has a strong e-focus in the German market, but which still needs to be further developed and converted into future-proof business models. Van Maanen: “The owners are not thinking about selling and take their corporate responsibility seriously.” And further: “I am looking forward to this new, very exciting task, in which I can tackle what I initiated at Springer on a completely different scale.”
Nevertheless, he remains involved in the change process at Springer and will be active at least until the beginning of next year, also as project manager for the 1st German Nursing Day taking place in January 2014 and the major Springer Medicine CharityAwards, which have recognized the outstanding commitment of foundations, organizations or... Institutions will be honored that are particularly committed to healthcare in Germany - the next time, by the way, will be on October 17th. <<