Press Release
Personnel announcement
Eike Walters hands over as CFO of
Tele Columbus to Dr Jeannette von Ratibor
as of April 2023
- Eike Walters will leave Tele Columbus AG at his own request on March 31, 2023
- Dr Jeannette von Ratibor will join the Management Board on March 1, 2023 and will take over as Chief Financial Officer as of April 1, 2023, ensuring an orderly transition
- Marc van’t Noordende, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Tele Columbus AG: “We would like to thank Eike Walters and are pleased to have won Jeannette von Ratibor, an experienced manager and proven financial expert, as his successor.”
Berlin, 10/01/2023. Eike Walters will step down as CFO of Tele Columbus AG on March 31, 2023 and will leave the company at his own request. His successor will be Jeannette von Ratibor, who was most recently responsible for the CFO Services business of the management consultancy Alvarez & Marsal in Germany. Prior to that, she held various C-level positions in the technology industry, including Head of Group Audit, Risk Management and Insurance at Deutsche Telekom AG. To ensure a successful transition on April 1, Jeannette von Ratibor will join the Management Board of Tele Columbus AG already on March 1, initially without an assigned department.
Marc van’t Noordende, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Tele Columbus AG, says: “After 15 successful years of service for Tele Columbus thereof four years as Chief Financial Officer, Eike Walters has decided to leave the company. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and the employees of Tele Columbus, I would like to sincerely thank Eike Walters and wish him all the best for the future, both personally and professionally.”
Concerning the succession, van’t Noordende explains: “We are very pleased that we were able to win Jeannette von Ratibor, an experienced manager and proven financial expert, as the new Chief Financial Officer for Tele Columbus. With decades of experience in finance and in the technology industry, she is predestined to further drive Tele Columbus AG’s existing growth strategy and thus further strengthen the company’s leading position in fiber network expansion.”
Eike Walters has been Chief Financial Officer of Tele Columbus AG since July 2018. During this time, he stabilized the company financially by means of two financing rounds, a successful cost reduction program and two capital increases. Following the takeover by Kublai GmbH, a capital increase of 475 million euros in May 2021 enabled a sustainable improvement of the balance sheet. Kublai GmbH is the majority owner of Tele Columbus with a stake of around 95 percent. Kublai, in turn, is 60 percent owned by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure and 40 percent by United Internet. Kublai became the majority shareholder of Tele Columbus through a public takeover offer, which was successfully completed in 2021. Subsequently, Kublai, took the company off the stock exchange through a delisting offer that had had the support by the Tele Columbus Management Board.
Eike Walters: “After intensive years in the Tele Columbus Group, it is my desire to take on new professional challenges. Now, following a successfully completed phase of restructuring, it is the right moment for this step. I would like to thank the Supervisory Board and my colleagues in the management team for their excellent cooperation – as well as all employees.”
Jeannette von Ratibor: “In my new role at Tele Columbus AG, I will be able to combine my professional passions for finance, digitization and technology companies. I am very much looking forward to this new task and to helping Tele Columbus pursue its growth path together with my colleagues. I would like to thank my predecessor Eike Walters, who made it a top priority to ensure a successful handover.”
Jeannette von Ratibor has extensive financial expertise from more than 25 years in global top management consultancies, tech startups and DAX companies. In her career, she has held numerous senior management positions, including at Verimi GmbH, A.T. Kearney, DaimlerChrysler Financial Services AG and Boston Consulting Group. Since 2020, she is heading the CFO Services business of the leading global management consultancy Alvarez & Marsal in Germany. Jeannette von Ratibor studied economics at the University of Passau and the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), where she also earned her doctorate.
About Tele Columbus AG
Tele Columbus AG is one of Germany’s leading fiber network operators which reaches more than 3 million homes. Via its brand PŸUR, the Company, offers high-speed internet including telephony and more than 200 TV channels. All of this via a digital entertainment platform that combines linear TV with video on demand entertainment. To its housing association partners the Tele Columbus Group offers tailored models of cooperation and state-of-the-art services such as telemetric and tenant portals. As a full-service partner for municipalities and regional utilities, the Company is actively supporting the fiber-based infrastructure and broadband internet expansion in Germany. For its business customers the Group offers carrier services and corporate solutions on its proprietary fiber network. Besides its headquarter in Berlin, the Company has locations in Hamburg, Leipzig, Ratingen and Unterföhring/Munich.
Disclaimer
This release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the Company’s current knowledge and expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and assumptions may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document.
