CEWE board doesn’t renew the contract of CEO, Yvonne Rostock

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CEWE board of management, (L to R): Patrick Berkhouwer, Dr. Reiner Fageth, Yvonne Rostock, Carsten Heitkamp, Thomas Mehls, Olaf Holzkaemper

The day after CEWE Group reported a solid preliminary financial report, the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation decided in its meeting not to renew the contract of the chairwoman of the Board of Management, Yvonne Rostock. According to the company, Rostock will hand over her position as Chairwoman of the Board of Management to Board member Thomas Mehls on May 1, 2025. As a personally liable partner, the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation manages the business of the listed CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA.

At the same time, the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation will appoint Board member Patrick Berkhouwer as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation. With the restructuring of the Board of Trustees, the body will be reduced from six to five people. The Board of Trustees also announced Sirka Hintze will join the Board of Directors on June 1, 2025 – initially without a portfolio, then as Chief Financial Officer from Au. 15, to replace CFO Dr. Olaf Holzkämper in this role, as planned and already announced.

Rostock was appointed as the chairwoman of the Management Board (CEO) in September 2022, formally taking over the duties of the CEO function and overall responsibility for sales in the CEWE group in the year by April 1, 2023. She succeeded Dr. Christian Friege, who departed the company under contentious circumstances, in April 2022. At that time, the board of trustees claimed Friege “massively obstructed” diversity and the appointment of a woman as a board member, which led to his contract not being renewed. Friege was later vindicated, leading to the departure of Dr. Rolf Hollander, who, as the then-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Stiftung, led the dispute that brought about Friege’s departure.

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation, I would like to thank Yvonne Rostock for the very successful cooperation,” says Helmut Hartig, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. “She took over the office of CEO in times of special personnel changes, developed the company strategically and economically in an extremely positive way and opened up new perspectives with her experience and passion. Two record figures in sales and earnings speak for themselves.”

Yvonne Rostock

“I am grateful for the trust placed in me and proud of what we have achieved as a team,” says Yvonne Rostock, 52. At the same time, we have successfully continued the transformation of the company into the age of artificial intelligence. This work will bear fruit in the coming years. Personally, I have achieved the jointly defined goals and am handing over the company to good hands – even though I will miss the people at CEWE very much.”

Mehls, 54, who will take over as Chairman of the Board of Management on 1 May 2025, has been a member of the Board of Management at CEWE since 2014, where his responsibilities include Marketing, New Business Areas, and Sustainability.

“Thomas Mehls has been working very successfully for CEWE for almost 12 years and has shaped its development into a multi-brand company and European market leader in photofinishing,” said Helmut Hartig. “He has extensive technical and management expertise and will lead the very experienced Management Board team excellently together with Patrick Berkhouwer, who has also been on the Management Board for many years.”

Hintze, 48, will be appointed to the Board of Management of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation from June 1 2025, where she will be responsible for Finance as CFO after completing her training. Hintze comes to CEWE from Vebego, where she was the Chief Value Officer since Feb. 1, 2023. Vebego is a company founded in 1943, engaged in cleaning services, healthcare services, facilities management, and landscaping.

“Sirka Hintze has international financial expertise and a broad view of value creation,” says Hartig. “We are very pleased that we were able to win them over for the CEWE Group.” Hintze has many years of industry experience in industry, logistics, trade and services. Most recently, she worked in various financial disciplines, risk & compliance and IT at companies in Germany, the USA and the Netherlands.