Adrian Sarbu appointed to highest executive position - CEO of CME

Adrian Sarbu is, as of today, the Romanian holding the highest executive position in a multinational company, as president and chief executive officer of Central European Media Enterprises (CME).

"CME is a young and energetic company. My strategy is to make CME one of the largest and most respected media companies in Europe, and prove that people in the region are competitive in the entertainment industry, which had so far seemed like a select club open only to American professionals," said Adrian Sarbu.

"Adrian is the most talented executive that I have worked with and I am proud to announce his appointment as chief executive officer of the company. He has been an incredible asset to CME and his insight and experience will continue to be a valuable resource for the company," said Ronald Lauder, founder and non-executive chairman of CME, which operates 18 television stations in seven former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe – Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. CME covers a 97 million-viewer market.

CME posted around one billion dollars in revenues last year and a 340 million-dollar EBITDA, being one of the world’s most profitable television companies. The company is traded on the NASDAQ and Prague Stock Exchanges. Ronald Lauder controls CME through voting rights, but the main shareholder (with 31%) is the world’s largest media group, Time Warner.

After directly running the Romanian and Czech operations, which account for the bulk of the company’s turnover and profit, Adrian Sarbu, 54, was promoted in October 2007 as chief operating officer of the entire group, and now has taken over as No. 1.

Across the world, the number of Romanians holding top executive positions is extremely small.

In Romania, CME holds Pro TV SA, which includes TV channels Pro TV, Acasa, Pro TV International, Pro Cinema, sport.ro and MTV Romania. Sarbu also holds 5% in Pro TV SA. Following the transaction whereby Sarbu sold Media Pro’s entertainment division to CME, he will also hold around 5% in CME.