Publicom founder René Grossenbacher steps down
Publicom founder and Chairman of the Board René Grossenbacher has decided not to stand for re-election at the upcoming municipal assembly.
In 1986, media scientist René Grossenbacher founded Publicom and developed it into a major independent media research and consulting company. After handing over operational management of the company to his long-time deputy Stefan Thommen two years ago and serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors since then, he will not stand for re-election at the upcoming AGM and will step down from the Board, according to a Publicom statement. The move is in line with the long-term succession planning initiated four years ago with the acquisition of the shares by technology company Eurospider Information Technology, it added.
"The timing for the withdrawal is ideal for me. The company is excellently positioned in association with the new owner, the synergy processes have been successfully established, and a great, dedicated team is keeping the ship on course," says René Grossenbacher about his decision.
With the founding of Publicom 35 years ago, Grossenbacher built a bridge between academic communication science and media practice, writes Publicom in the release. According to its own statements, Publicom was the first company in Europe to use content analysis for the evaluation of communication campaigns and reputation monitoring.
Grossenbacher was also one of the pioneers of content marketing. He was a founding member of Switzerland's first corporate publishing agency and built up the corporate media division at Publicom, which was later spun off into an independent agency. Highlights of Grossenbacher's work included the development of the Communications Atlas of Switzerland, which served as the basis for modeling the Swiss radio landscape in the 1990s, the development of the methodology for reviewing the concession requirements for service public media, and the launch of MediaBrands, the first intermedia study for the qualitative assessment of media brands.
In the future, the Publicom founder intends to devote himself to mandates in the non-profit sector as well as to journalistic projects.
