Christoph Tonini to become Delegate of the Board and CEO of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group and step down from his mandates at TX Group

The Swiss Marketplace Group SMG will have a new CEO starting 1 February 2023. The current CEO, Gilles Despas, will leave the company (see also SMG media release). Christoph Tonini will take over the management as Delegate of the Board of Directors and CEO. He will step down from his existing board of directors mandates at TX Group and Goldbach.

Christoph Tonini has been a member of the TX Group Board of Directors since July 2020 and is a member of the audit committee. On behalf of TX Group he is also a member of the Board of Directors of Goldbach Group and an independent member of the Board of Directors of its subsidiary Goldbach Media. He joined the TX Group (then Tamedia) in 2003. After holding various management positions, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the TX Group in 2007 and Chief Executive Officer in 2013.  In these functions, he was largely responsible for the strategic alignment of the TX Group, the development of advertising sales and the expansion in the area of digital platforms and marketplaces. Before joining TX Group, he held various management positions at Ringier. Christoph Tonini is currently active beyond the TX Group as a member of the Board of Directors of Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund and honorary member of the Board of Trustees of the children's charity Right to Play, among others. 

SMG was founded in November 2021 by TX Group, Ringier, La Mobilière and General Atlantic as a joint venture in the digital marketplace sector. The company includes the well-known platforms acheter-louer.ch, anibis.ch, AutoScout24, Car For You, FinanceScout24, home.ch, Homegate, icasa.ch, ImmoScout24, ImmoStreet.ch, MotoScout24, Ricardo, tutti.ch.
Pietro Supino, Chairman of the Board of Directors and publisher of the TX Group: "Christoph Tonini contributed significantly to the strong positioning and development of our Group as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. We are very pleased that he will become the CEO of SMG, which is of great importance to us."