edding AG has appointed two new Management Board members - digital experts Fränzi Kühne and Boontham Temaismithi will share the newly created role of Chief Digital Officer (CDO)

- edding create the first Management Board job-share in Germany

- Founders of digital agency TLGG will be key to driving forward edding's transformation and "Strategy 2025+"

- Focus on consumer centricity, diversity and new work

With effect from 1^st March 2022, digital experts Fränzi Kühne and Boontham Temaismithi will together take up the newly created Management Board position of Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at edding AG. Kühne (38) and Temaismithi (50) will assume this management role jointly, a model previously unknown at Aktiengesellschaft Board level in Germany.

Back in 2020, edding AG's Supervisory Board had already approved the expansion of the Management Board with the addition of a fourth portfolio. As the appointment of two more Management Board members requires an amendment to the Articles of Association, the CDO duo are to be appointed formally after the next ordinary general meeting. Nevertheless, they will both take up the position from 1^st March 2022.

By appointing Kühne and Temaismithi, the Supervisory and Management Boards are increasing the edding Group's expertise in the areas of diversity, consumer centricity and digital skills. In 2021, edding began a fundamental transformation process with the launch of its Strategy 2025+. With their extensive experience in change management, the Berlin digital agency's founders will play a crucial part in furthering corporate change and in the implementation of edding's Strategy 2025+. The new Management Board duo will assume immediately responsibility at edding for IT, Data Management and Consumer Centricity. In 2008, Kühne and Temaismithi founded one of Germany's leading digital agencies, TLGG, and shaped the communications activities of renowned corporations such as Lufthansa, BMW and E.ON.

Chehab Wahby, Chair of the Supervisory Board, edding AG:
"The appointment of renowned digital experts Fränzi Kühne and Boontham Temaismithi as joint CDOs at edding AG is a clear affirmation of transformation at all levels in consumer centricity, the development of digital expertise and the shaping of the future of work. Together with the current Management team, the Supervisory Board considers company management to be ideally placed to implement Strategy 2025+".

Per Ledermann, Chairman of the Management Board, edding AG:
"We are delighted that we have been able to recruit two trailblazers of digital transformation in Fränzi Kühne and Boontham Temaismithi. Together, they will not only complement our existing Management team with their digital know-how, but will also contribute a mindset that will be instrumental in driving forward our transformation. We also want to break new ground in terms of diversity and new work. Business success is the basis of economic sustainability and we are now also developing the necessary digital expertise at Board level."

Fränzi Kühne, CDO, edding AG:

"Sustainable digital transformation is one of an SME's key tasks. As a member of the Management Board of edding, a family business heavily driven by its core values, I am looking forward to the role and the opportunity - together with Boontham - to contribute our knowledge and experience to the Management team, and to learn from edding. Management in tandem, especially at Board level, is key to leveraging this digital transformation; our joint future decisions will include two points of view, allowing us to offer a dual perspective at all times. I am convinced that, as a result, we will be able to make an important contribution to this particular phase of corporate change."

About edding AG:

Family-owned business edding was founded in Hamburg in 1960 and has more than six decades of expertise in the design, manufacture and distribution of reliable, high-end branded products. The company's core values include social and environmental responsibility. Top priority is given to conducting business in a fair and sustainable manner. But that is not all - wherever edding operates as a business, it seeks to encourage individuals to express and visualise their personalities, their ideas, thoughts and feelings.

Through its edding, Legamaster and Playroom brands, the company offers premium products and solutions for private and professional requirements. Famous for its permanent markers, the edding range includes markers and writing implements for the home, the office and for industry, along with products to help unleash creativity, tattoo inks and nail polish. Innovative digital applications round off the range. Legamaster develops and sells products for visual communication, opening up new forms of workplace collaboration, leading to greater interaction, creativity and productivity. The portfolio includes traditional products such as flipcharts and whiteboards, as well as electronic solutions such as interactive e-Screens. The Playroom brand, part of the edding Group since 2021, offers innovative concepts and services to promote a culture of innovation within companies and organisations.

As a company with an international dimension, edding AG is based in Ahrensburg, near Hamburg. The company also has branches and distribution partners across the globe. In 2020, the Group earned consolidated sales of EUR 125.7 million and had an average staff count of 679.

Ahrensburg, 1^st March 2022
edding Aktiengesellschaft

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Contact:
edding AG, Sönke Gooss (CFO)
Bookkoppel 7, 22926 Ahrensburg
Tel. 04102/808-200, Fax 04102/808-204
e-Mail: [email protected]