Dr. Ferdinand Mahr brings 15 years of executive and advisory experience, focused on the media, entertainment and advertising sector and on commercial functions such as marketing and e-commerce. As a functional executive and member of the executive committee, he led large-scale strategy and operating model transformations – building on earlier experience in management consulting, corporate strategy and investment management. He has worked across public, family-owned and private equity-backed companies. This breadth of experience gives him firsthand insight into what top executive and board roles demand across different company cultures and stages, from both the business and human perspectives.

At Spencer Stuart, Ferdinand places senior executives and board members, advises them on leadership strategy, culture, teams and organizations, and personally coaches select leaders. As part of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice, he is responsible for the media, entertainment and advertising sector across continental Europe. As a member of the Marketing, Sales & Communications Officers Practice, he identifies and develops commercial leaders across industries. Drawing on his experience as an investment director, senior executive of a PE portfolio company and transformation leader, he also works with PE funds to appoint executives who drive value creation across their portfolios.

Discovering and developing leaders who transform media, entertainment and advertising, and commercial functions

  • Previously, Ferdinand served as senior vice president of marketing and a member of the executive committee at Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, part of Bertelsmann. He led marketing operations across 40+ publishing imprints and a large-scale transformation of the company’s marketing strategy and operating model. He was part of Bertelsmann's Top 500 Executives.
  • As an executive committee member of a PE-backed omnichannel media retailer, he headed and modernized marketing, e-commerce and catalog sales across three brands in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
  • At ProSiebenSat.1 Group, he led and repositioned advertising product development and management as senior vice president of product at the group's advertising sales arm, Seven.One Media. Earlier, he built a marketing effectiveness analytics unit that guided the allocation of a substantial advertising budget across portfolio brands. He also held roles as an investment director in the e-commerce portfolio and in corporate strategy.
  • Ferdinand began his career at Boston Consulting Group, where he was most recently was a project leader in the technology, media and telecommunications practice.

Ferdinand holds a doctorate in management from LMU Munich. His research focused on how IT, organization, people management and strategy affect company performance. He also holds a diploma in management from LMU Munich and was a scholar of the Bayerische EliteAkademie, a program focused on responsible leadership.