08 Feb 2013

Switzerland/International: Alain D. Bandle appointed new CEO of Publicitas

PubliGroupe appoints the Swiss Alain D. Bandle (60) as the new head of the Media Sales segment and CEO of Publicitas starting 1 March 2013. Alain D. Bandle has held top leadership positions and accumulated significant turnaround management experience at various international technology companies. He will succeed Beat Roeschlin (58), who after three years as CEO will focus on the further build-up and expansion in the out-of-home (OOH) market.

Arndt Groth, CEO of PubliGroupe: “With Alain D. Bandle, Publicitas is gaining a top manager who will vigorously push ahead with the transformation of Publicitas amidst a dramatically changing media industry and reinforce central IT and digitalisation projects with his wealth of experience and key leadership abilities. At the same time, Alain D. Bandle possesses the necessary know-how to position the national and international network of Publicitas as a lean and effective media service company. I thank Beat Roeschlin for the initiation of numerous significant growth initiatives in the digital field and for the implementation of important optimisation measures over the last years and am pleased that he will continue to contribute to Publicitas in his former core area of expertise as one of the most qualified experts on the OOH market and that he will assist the new CEO with important affairs.”

Alain D. Bandle: "I look forward to my new role at Publicitas. Network, sales and technology; these are the key ingredients that drive me to make Publicitas a leading media service company." 

Alain D. Bandle holds a master’s degree in business from the University of St. Gallen (lic. oec. HSG). The trilingual, internationally experienced manager worked most recently at Satmap, a USA-based company specialising in artificial intelligence, where he was responsible for the expansion of operations in Continental Europe. Previously he served as CEO of the Versatel telecommunications group in Düsseldorf, which he sold to the American private equity company KKR following a successful repositioning and turnaround in 2011. From 2003 to 2009, Alain D. Bandle worked at Dell. As Vice-President and General Manager based in Geneva, he oversaw Europe-wide business relations in the public sector, which constitutes Dell’s largest and most successful business segment with sales volumes of over EUR 2.5 billion and 700 employees. Before that, he headed the Central Europe (DACH) division at Dell.

For a number of years, Alain D. Bandle has complemented his operative duties by serving in an advisory capacity or as a supervisory board member for various companies and organisations, such as at Kooaba, an ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) start-up company in the field of augmented reality. In addition, he has consulted companies and private equity firms in regard to ICTM projects as a senior executive advisor.

Numerous important IT projects at Publicitas

Publicitas is currently undergoing major changes and has been in the red for several years. For 2012 as well, Publicitas will report a negative operating result. At the Investors' Day in December 2012, PubliGroupe forecast an operating loss of CHF 22 million for Publicitas, which turned out to be lower in the end due to successes achieved in restructuring and winning back customers in the final weeks of the year.

The company is transforming from a traditionally print-dominated player with a decidedly sales-oriented, decentralised orientation into an increasingly digital service and outsourcing provider for the media industry. Publicitas is further investing in a new IT processing infrastructure and tool landscape. By 2014, Publicitas will be running its operations for all types of media, in Switzerland and abroad, on a new, highly flexible software solution that will act as the end-to-end digitalisation backbone. The underlying cloud technology represents a key factor enabling reduction of deployment and operating costs, as well as speeding up implementation of business requirement changes.

Going forward, Publicitas will strive for further diversification of its product portfolio. These efforts include strengthening of the out-of-home segment, which is already being marketed in various regions of Switzerland via cooperation agreements with third parties and which also plays an important role abroad, especially for Publicitas in India.