GfK appoints new CFO

GERMANY — GfK has hired IBM’s Christian Diedrich as its chief financial officer, to take over from Pamela Knapp, who is stepping down for personal reasons.

Diedrich, who will take over in October, is currently vice-president international corporate development at IBM in China and has had responsibility for IBM’s mergers and acquisitions outside of the US. He joined IBM in 1984 and has since worked across finance and strategy. Other recent roles include CFO for IBM Northeast Europe and CFO at IBM Germany.

Knapp was appointed a member of the GfK’s management board in November 2009 with the remit to help implement the ‘One GfK’ strategy. The HR responsibility previously assigned to the CFO will now be handled by CEO, Matthias Hartmann (pictured).

Separately, GfK posted its results for the first half of 2014 which showed a fall in sales. They were down by 1.6% (-4.2% when currency effects taken into account) although the company said it maintained its profit margin. Adjusted operating income totalled €68.6 million (-10.1% on the same period in the previous year). Matthias Hartmann, CEO of GfK said: “The implementation of our transformation and the realignment of our product portfolio are taking hold and we are seeing positive effects. Nevertheless, the figures for the first half of this year paint a mixed picture, as they have been affected by the weak market environment, marked currency effects and a one-off effect in the comparative figures.”