Thomas Middelhoff (born May 11, 1953) is a German corporate manager. He was on the board of directors of Bertelsmann from 1990 - 2002, being CEO from 1998. From 2004 to 1 March 2009, Middelhoff was chairman of the supervisory board of Arcandor (previously KarstadtQuelle AG), and CEO of the company.

Background

Thomas Middelhoff was born in Düsseldorf, Germany as the son of a textile businessman. He studied business at the University of Münster and then doctored at the Institute for Marketing supervised by Heribert Meffert. While at university, he already worked in his father's business. After graduating, he received a high post in the company.

Bertelsmann (1986 - 2002)

In 1986 he switched to Bertelsmann, a multinational media corporation based in Germany, as assistant of the management of the graphic firm in Gütersloh. In 1990, he became a member of the board of directors of Bertelsmann.

Middelhoff recognized the potential of the new digital media early. So he made small investments into Firma Pixelpark in Berlin among others, for Bertelsmann. He became aware of AOL by his affinity with the new media and suggested a big financial participation of Bertelsmann in the young company of Steve Case. Being one of the first, who believed in a rapid development of the Internet, Bertelsmann created the joint venture AOL Europe with a financial holding of 50 million dollar for a 5% stake. This investment was extremely successful and would later influence Middelhof's ascent in the company to chairman of the board. In May 1995, he became a member of the governing board of AOL, during his time in this position Middelhoff became a "close friend" of the AOL founder Steve Case.

In 1995, Bertelsmann and AOL started the joint venture AOL Germany. From November 1998 to July 2002, Middelhoff was the CEO of the former. During this time, the company increased its internet activities by starting the online media portal BOL (Bertelsmann Online), which was sold to buch.de in 2002. But soon it would step back from these online engagements, for example by selling its shares of AOL-Europe back to Time Warner, which had merged with AOL in 2001. In January 2000, Middelhoff declined a director position at AOL and then resigned from the supervisory board of the corporation.

Subsequent career

From 2003, Middelhoff coordinated the European matters of the holding company Investcorp. The German businesses of the corporation included Gerresheimer Glas and Callahan. After APCOA Parking was taken over by Investcorp in 2004, he was appointed into its supervisory board.

Since 2003, Middelhoff has also been a member of the board of the The New York Times Company responsible for the compensation committee. As a confidant of Madeleine Schickedanz, he became the chairman of KarstadtQuelle AG's supervisory board in June 2004 and its CEO in May 2005. KarstadtQuelle was renamed Arcandor in 2007.

In February 2009, he announced the establishment of Berger Lahnstein Middelhoff & Partners (BLM Partners). His partners are Roland Berger and Florian Lahnstein (son of Manfred Lahnstein). The firm was said to be a long running investment vehicle following the success of the German1 IPO in August 2008. In April of 2009, Jason Carley and Gero Wendenberg were added to the partnership .

On June 5, 2009 several media reported that the German justice minister Brigitte Zypries had recommended that the state prosecution service look into allegations of fraud against Middelhoff, based on the fact that he and his wife allegedly held shares of an investment fund, which bought real estate from Arcandor and then leasebacked it to for unusually high rental fees.

Middelhoff has five children and lives with his family in Bielefeld.