Bert Habets, born in 1971, holds a Master of Economics and Law (fiscal) from the University of Maastricht. He joined CLT-UFA, which later became RTL Group, in 1999 in the Business Development unit.
In March 2001, Bert Habets was appointed CFO of Holland Media Groep, which rebranded as RTL Nederland in August 2004. In January 2008, he was appointed CEO of RTL Nederland. Under his leadership, RTL Nederland established a clear strategy of strengthening the core business, while diversifying and innovating. Bert Habets has significantly grown RTL Nederland’s digital businesses (acquisition of the on-demand service Videoland; launch of RTL MCN; joint venture with SpotX for the Benelux and Nordic regions) while moving into other commercial areas such as RTL Ventures and RTL Live Entertainment. At the same time, he strengthened the company’s major free-TV channels and oversaw the launch of four new channels. With these varied strategic moves, he has transformed RTL Nederland from a traditional broadcaster into an all-round media and entertainment company. In 2014, Bert Habets was awarded ‘Most influential broadcast personality of the year 2013’ in the Netherlands.
With effect from 19 April 2017, Bert Habets assumed the role of Co-CEO of RTL Group alongside Guillaume de Posch and was elected in RTL Group’s Board of Directors as Executive Director.
In January 2018, at his own request, Guillaume de Posch stepped down as Co-CEO of RTL Group. Since then, Bert Habets has been leading RTL Group as sole CEO with overall responsibility for the strategy and day-to-day management of RTL Group.
In this capacity, he also has the portfolio responsibility for Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, RTL Nederland, FremantleMedia, RTL Hungary and RTL Croatia. He is responsible for the Group’s digital businesses in the MPN and ad-tech areas, and for Group Strategy, Business Development, Corporate Communications & Marketing, European Affairs, Audit & Compliance and, together with the CFO, for Group HR matters.
