Thomas Middelhoff profile

When Thomas Middelhoff arrived at Arcandor in May 2005 he set himself a 100-day target to bring the group back from the brink of financial turmoil, and today the company is a leader in its various industries.

From 1984 he was member of the management board of his father's Middelhoff GmbH where he lead the company's activities outside of Germany.

Many of Middelhoff's important childhood lessons are related to his father's business. Following his early involvement in foreign operations he never limited his activities to Germany. When Thomas was 17, his father sent him to Hong Kong to collect a load of textiles and bring them to Germany.

During his time at Bertelsmann he sold, bought or resold over 80 companies, including spectacular investments into AOL and AOL Europe, which generated billions.

It is often recounted how Middelhoff as Bertelsmann manager bought five percent of AOL's shares and became a partner of AOL Europe's Steve Case in 1994. Few people in Germany took the potential of the Internet seriously back then. When Middelhoff sold his shares at the height of the stock boom, he made around eight billion post taxes for Bertelsmann.

He holds a Business Degree from Muenster University and worked as a scientific assistant at Muenster University while obtaining a PhD in his late twenties. He also managed to establish a production site for his father's business in Greece at the same time. E-mail to a friend