Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 28, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The GVU board initially brought in the trained lawyer as an external consultant at the beginning of 2005. With his experience as managing director of a wholesale company in the entertainment-software sector and as chief executive of the Association of Entertainment Software, which has since been dissolved, Schäfer prepared an extensive structural analysis of the organization and was appointed the GVU’s second managing director in September 2005. Schäfer’s task as the managing director responsible for administrative matters in the areas of finance, personnel, press and public relations and IT consisted in particulary of implementing internal restructuring measures that he had developed in close cooperation with the board. Against the background of a rapid development of new forms of copyright infringement, it had become necessary to set the course for an extensive realignment of the GVU.
This process is now largely complete. Ronald Schäfer has fulfilled the task assigned to him and is therefore leaving the organization at the end of the year. The board has commissioned a recruitment agency to search for a replacement in the management. The internationally renowned service provider has extended its search beyond the boundaries of the industries supporting the GVU. Christian Sommer, Chairman of the GVU Board, comments: “For the repositioning of the GVU, we wanted not only to limit the search to the narrowest circle, but also consciously think ‚out of the box’ for ‘Phase Two’ of the restructuring, also through input from third parties”. This process is ongoing – until it is completed, the company’s board, in direct cooperation with the employees and the outsourcing partner, is conducting the business of the GVU. In addition, as part of an overall concept taking effect at the beginning of 2008, the future managing director will conduct the business of the GVU as a special representative pursuant to Section 30 BGB and thus as an organ of the association.
“Ronald Schäfer has excellently completed the task assigned to Him when he joined the company and has done his work to the satisfaction of the board. On behalf of the membership and the board of the GVU, I thank Ronald Schäfer for his committed and successful cooperation: In the development and implementation of ‘Phase One’ of the GVU’s restructuring, in broadening the membership base and his indisputable contribution to the company’s successes,” Christian Sommer bids farewell to the departing managing director, about whose future sphere of activity nothing had yet been learned.
