As early as Wednesday, the 28-member RBB Broadcasting Council would like to decide who should lead the two-country institution out of the biggest crisis of the still young broadcaster. The date will “probably” be brought forward by one day, as the daily mirror learned. There was also a switching conference with the acting chairman of the Broadcasting Council, Dieter Pienkny.
At the special meeting of the control committee, the decision is to be made as to who will be interim director or transition director. So little time for the selection committee, which was formed from the heads of the broadcasting council, administrative board, staff council and freelance representatives, to find suitable candidates, especially since the job is considered an unattractive ejection seat.
You could look back to the time of Patricia Schlesinger’s predecessor Dagmar Reim. One name is heard more often: Reinhart Binder, most recently legal counsel and director of law and corporate development at RBB. As a lawyer, the native of Hamburg brings with him a qualification that is of particular importance in the processing of the affair involving Patricia Schlesinger and ex-Chairman of the Board of Directors Wolf-Dieter Wolf.
He also knows the RBB inside out. He was already in charge of the legal and human resources department at the ORB. After the merger of ORB and SFB to form RBB, he was appointed in-house counsel and head of the artistic directorship, and later he also became director of law and corporate development. Binder should also enjoy a high reputation among employee representatives.
He is currently the joint broadcasting data protection officer for BR, SR, WDR, Deutschlandradio and ZDF. He is not said to have any particular expertise in the program. Despite many reform efforts, RBB television is in last place among the ARD third parties. But the most important task of the interim director is to organize the orderly transition to a new director or a new boss as quickly as possible.
The former RBB production and operations director Nawid Goudarzi is also trusted with this task. He held the position until 2018, when he retired at the age of 64 and handed over his position to Christoph Augenstein. Goudarzi came to ORB from ZDF in the 1990s and has been responsible for production and operations since RBB was founded in 2003. In addition to his precise knowledge of the processes at RBB, what speaks in his favor is that he could take care of another open flank of the broadcaster: the question of whether and how the digital media house could continue.
In the search for an interim director, more and more names of former ARD directors are mentioned. In addition to Peter Boudgoust (SWR) and Ulrich Wilhelm (BR), another possible candidate from the group described has been named: Lutz Marmor.
The 68-year-old worked as director of NDR from 2088 to 2020, and was also chairman of ARD from 2013 to 2015. But what still matters are his years at ORB: as administrative director from 1991 to 1995, before continuing his career at NDR in the same position, which then led him to the top of the station. Especially in Brandenburg, when filling vacancies, the emphasis is on “East German”.
