Chairman of the Executive Board Thomas-B. Quaas expects the realignment to receive a further boost from greater closeness to the markets: "The appointment of Ralph Gusko means that the Brands & Supply Chain area will be managed in the future by a successful Beiersdorf manager with extensive international experience. He brings with him an optimum combination of many years’ experience in marketing management and extreme closeness to the markets. We would like to thank Markus Pinger for his hard work and wish him all the best for his future career."
Ralph Gusko (50) has worked for 22 years at Beiersdorf in a variety of central brand management functions and in regional market management. Among other things, he has a successful track record in brand management as head of marketing in Germany (2001–2005). As General Manager, he had overall responsibility for the successful development and expansion of Beiersdorf’s business in South Korea (1995–2001) and in the Thailand, Indochina & Western Asia region (2005–2009). Since 2009, Ralph Gusko has been responsible for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland as General Manager Northern Europe.
In the highly competitive UK market, he successfully piloted and drove forward the current "Focus on Skin Care. Closer to Markets" consumer business strategy, including the new NIVEA brand communication. The experiences gained in the United Kingdom and the United States are now serving as role models for the global rollout of this strategy.
Markus Pinger was appointed Executive Board member responsible for the Supply Chain area and its reorganization in 2005. He implemented a fundamental optimization of the Supply Chain and the reorganization of the business in the United States. In mid-2010, he took over responsibility for the newly created Brands & Supply Chain position on the Executive Board, and since then he has driven forward the brand realignment strategy. Following the completion of phase one of this realignment, Markus Pinger asked the Supervisory Board to release him from his contractual obligations before the end of his contract so as to allow him to assume a management position at a major German company. The Supervisory Board granted this request.