Handover on the Management Board: Bernd Hoffmann becomes the new CEO of virtual minds – Andreas Kleiser joins the Supervisory Board

Freiburg, August 30, 2018. Change at the top of virtual minds AG: After 18 years in the company’s management, Andreas Kleiser, founder and former CEO of virtual minds AG, is handing over his Management Board mandate to Bernd Hoffmann with effect from January 1, 2019 and moving to the Supervisory Board of the Freiburg-based technology holding company. Hoffmann will join the Management Board of virtual minds on September 1, 2018 and gradually take over Kleiser’s responsibilities by the end of the year.

Andreas Kleiser (39) founded virtual minds AG in Freiburg in 2001. In the course of further company foundations, participations and takeovers such as myLoc managed IT AG, ADITION, Yieldlab, Active Agent, The ADEX and AdClear, he consistently focused the investment company on the business areas of digital media technology and data center infrastructure and successfully developed it into the strongest German and European competitor in the adtech sector for US players such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. With their platforms and solutions, the companies of the virtual minds group today form the leading European full-stack offering for the digital advertising market. He secured further growth opportunities for the group, particularly internationally, with the participation of strategic investors United Internet (2008) and ProSiebenSat.1 (2015).

“Since its foundation, but especially in recent years, virtual minds has written a unique success story in terms of digital advertising technology made in Germany and Europe,” explains Andreas Kleiser, CEO of virtual minds group. “Today, we play in the international Adtech Champions’ League with our technology offerings and solutions, and I am very proud that I have been able to help shape this growth and success together with my colleagues on the Management Board and the entire team, some of whom have been with me for many years. And we are also ideally equipped for the future and our further growth – we have made the necessary technological, personnel and financial provisions and set the right course. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an entrepreneur at heart and love being close to the product and the team. So now is a good time to hand over operational responsibility to Bernd Hoffman after 18 years at the helm of virtual minds. Bernd is a first-class media and digital expert and an outstanding manager, whom I also hold in high regard personally. I am delighted that he has accepted this new challenge and I am sure that he will lead the company successfully into the future together with his colleagues on the virtual minds Management Board.”

Bernd Hoffmann (54), a top-class digital and marketing expert, is joining the virtual minds group. The former Managing Director Advertising Platform Solutions at ProSiebenSat.1 Media is one of the top managers in the German media business with 25 years of professional experience in management positions on the media and agency side. Born in Bielefeld, he began his professional career in 1994 in product management at ProSieben Media AG. After holding positions at LetsBuyIt.com (Head of Media), Kirch New Media AG (General Manager Vertical Games) and Mindmatics (Director New Business), Hoffmann moved to the agency side in 2005 as Managing Director of MediaCom subsidiary Beyond Interactive and to GroupM (WPP Werbeholding). In 2007, as Managing Director of GroupM Interaction, he took over responsibility for the entire digital business of the largest media agency in Germany and drove the development and international rollout of Xaxis and the acquisition of agencies such as Quisma. As CEO of GroupM Connect and Managing Director of Quisma, he subsequently pushed the expansion of the programmatic agency business. Before returning to ProSiebenSat.1 at the beginning of 2018, Hoffmann most recently headed the Sales & Consultancy division of the “M-Platforms” as CCO GroupM and provided support for GroupM agency clients.

“Sir Martin Sorrell once said about his own business: ‘I believe in eating your own children’. I think that’s exactly what the dynamics of digital business are all about. virtual minds has internalized this attitude for years, developed and rejected countless ideas, constantly changed and grown immensely in the process. It was precisely this attitude, which is shared by all employees of the virtual minds companies, that made me decide to join virtual minds and take on a new, exciting responsibility here. To continue Andreas Kleiser’s overall entrepreneurial work and vision for the virtual minds group and for an independent European adtech offering, as well as to help shape the technical ecosystem of the digital media landscape with partners such as ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group and United Internet Group, is simply not to be missed,” says Bernd Hoffmann. “I’m really looking forward to taking the next steps with virtual minds.”