Rolf Heinz appointed head of the L’Équipe group

The team has found its new captain. The subsidiary of the Amaury group has just recruited a big name in the media and press sector: Rolf Heinz, the former boss of the Prisma Media group, leader in the magazine press (Voici, Femme Actuelle, Géo, Télé Loisirs, etc.).

For the manager, who will soon celebrate his 58th birthday, it’s a bit of a homecoming. Rolf Heinz evolved for almost 20 years in the world of media, before taking a step aside. In 2022, he became the CEO of MBK Fincom, a European e-commerce company in the furniture sector, a position he still holds today.

Rolf Heinz has landed a coveted position. Around thirty candidates applied to lead L’Équipe. Last November, Laurent Prud'homme, the former general manager of the media group, resigned to join the football club Olympique Lyonnais (OL). Since then, Aurore Amaury, the president of the L'Équipe group, has managed the interim, in parallel with her duties as co-general manager of the Amaury group, alongside her brother Jean-Étienne.

Rolf Heinz’s expertise in the media undoubtedly made the difference. The former CEO of Prisma Media notably led the transformation of the magazine press leader by investing massively in digital, to make it a multimedia group. He spent 12 years at the head of this company with more than 1,000 employees at the time, and whose turnover amounted to nearly 350 million euros. He left his position when Prisma Media, owned by the German group Grüner Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, was bought in 2021 by Vivendi.

This Spanish-Germanic, holder of a Master's degree in international relations, economics and business from the University of Hamburg, also held the position of managing director of Grüner Jahr/Mondadori in Italy. And from 2013, managed all the European subsidiaries (Austria, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Croatia-Serbia) of Grüner Jahr. His career has allowed him to acquire very transversal expertise, which concerns content creation, new technologies, user experience, as well as the implementation of diversification strategies and the development of new relays. of growth. This solid and very international profile convinced the Amaury family. Rolf Heinz also has a reputation for managing teams in a collaborative manner. Shareholders are undoubtedly banking on its team spirit to bring together internal talent.

As Managing Director, Rolf Heinz will be responsible for developing the L'Équipe group's activities and media brands. Its scope includes the management of editorial strategy, technological innovations and customer experience. “The center of our action is the user,” he already explained when he was at the head of Prisma Media. The future leader will also be responsible for L'Équipe's growth and diversification strategy for 2030. His roadmap, in short, is to support the transformation of the group on all supports and all media, so that it -it becomes flourishing again. The Team is now getting closer to balance.

He will join the executive committee of the Amaury group and report directly to Aurore and Jean-Étienne Amaury. Still working at MBK Fincom, the future manager will take up his new role from June 1. In the meantime, Aurore Amaury will continue to act in the interim. Rolf Heinz will arrive just in time to pilot the Euro Football Championship, which will be held from June 14 to July 14, and the Paris Olympic Games organized from July 26 to August 11. Without forgetting the Paralympic Games, which will kick off on August 28. The Team has been planning large-scale arrangements for these three events for a long time. The summer promises to be very studious for his new boss.