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.”

 

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments


Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts