Reinhard Mohn (1921–2009)

Reinhard Mohn is the great-great-grandson of Carl Bertelsmann, the founder of the Bertelsmann publishing house. Over the course of forty years Mohn built Bertelsmann into an international media conglomerate that includes magazine, book, & music publishing houses. He is currently chairman of the afficher plus board of the Bertelsmann Foundation. (Publisher Provided) Reinhard Mohn was born in Gütersloh, Germany on June 29, 1921. In 1947, he took over his family's printing and publishing business, C. Bertelsmann Verlag. He proceed to expanded the operation by embracing sales representatives and catalogs and the company grew to incorporate magazine publishing, television broadcasting and other avenues, thus transforming from a German book publisher to an international media company. In 1971, he helped oversee the family-owned company's transformation into a stock corporation and become chairman and chief executive. In 1977, he established the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation. In 1981, he retired from the company, but remained on Bertelsmann's supervisory board. In 1998, he was awarded the Premio Príncipe de Asturias in Communication and Humanities. He died on October 3, 2009 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins