Ex-Google employee Petra Ehmann becomes Chief Innovation Officer of Ringier
Petra Ehmann will become Ringier's new Chief Innovation Officer on September 1, 2022. In this role, Ehmann will become a member of the expanded Group Executive Board. With the newly created position, the Group Executive Board under the leadership of CEO Marc Walder aims to further strengthen the combination of innovative capability and customer proximity.
Petra Ehmann (36) from Germany began her career at the technology company Google nine years ago. Most recently, she acted as global lead for product partnerships of the innovation technology Augmented Reality. Prior to that, she drove novel partnerships in EMEA in Google's emerging business development unit Ads & Commerce and before that for Google Maps in EMEA and Google Finance in EMEA and APAC.
Ehmann has been a member of the Board of Directors of the listed Swiss family-owned company Bossard since 2021 and a member of the Board of Trustees of Technorama since 2020. In addition, as a board member of "We Shape Tech," she is committed to greater diversity in the technology industry and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Ringier Initiative "EqualVoice"which campaigns for more visibility for women in the media.
Ehmann grew up in Bolivia and successfully completed her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich and her master's degree in management science and engineering at Stanford University in Silicon Valley. She gained early work experience in a wide variety of cultures around the globe, whether at technology company Bosch in Mexico, tool manufacturer Hilti in China, or Internet startup Kekanto in Brazil. In 2018, 2019 and 2021, she made it onto the list of the "Top 100 Digital Shapers" by Handelszeitung and Balance sheet.
Marc Walder, CEO Ringier AG, says: "With her impressive technical background and her enormously broad management experience, Petra Ehmann is the ideal person for this challenging, international task. The media industry continues to transform at a rapid pace. Petra Ehmann will help Ringier to achieve new applications and solutions faster and more intelligently. We are thus bundling our competencies internationally and dovetailing scientific expertise with market and customer proximity."
As Chief Innovation Officer, Petra Ehmann will report directly to Ringier Group CEO Marc Walder.
Petra Ehmann says: "Our strategy must aim to promote Ringier's growth with attractive products and fields of innovation. With a holistic understanding of innovation, I would like to work together with Ringier employees to further develop Ringier as a leading and innovative media company."
