Thomas Rabe (business manager)
Thomas Rabe (born August 6, 1965, in Luxembourg) is a German business executive.[1] In 2006, he was appointed to the Bertelsmann executive board, of which he has been chairman and chief executive officer since 2012.[2][3] Under his leadership, the group has become more international, more digital and more diversified.[4][5] In particular, he has advanced the business with music rights and the educational division.[6] Additionally, Rabe was appointed chief executive officer of RTL Group in 2019.[7]
Early life and education[edit]
Rabe was born in 1965 in Luxembourg and grew up in Brussels,[8][9] where his father worked as a civil servant in the European Coal and Steel Community from 1968.[10] He attended the European School and as a youth was a bass player in a punk band.[11] After completing his German baccalaureate (Abitur), Rabe studied Business and Economics at the RWTH Aachen and the University of Cologne.[12] After earning a degree in business administration in 1989, he obtained his doctorate in economics, with a doctoral thesis on "Liberalization and Deregulation in the European Single Market for Insurance" in 1995.[13]
In addition to his native language German, Rabe speaks English, French, Dutch and Spanish.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Rabe lives in Gütersloh and Berlin and is married to a neurologist.[55][56] The couple collects modern art and, in 2015, purchased a Henry van de Velde-designed villa in Tervuren near Brussels.[57]
Rabe is a member of the Catholic fraternity AV Hansea-Berlin zu Köln.[58]