Change at Otto Group Corporate Communications: After 22 years, Thomas Voigt hands over the reins to Annette Siragusano.

An era at the head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at the Otto Group comes to an end next year. Thomas Voigt, who turned 65 last year, will enter another phase of his self-efficacy in the coming year. The communications graduate, renowned business journalist and editor-in-chief of W&V, HORIZONT, Impulse and BIZZ joined the Otto Group in Hamburg in March 2004. Voigt is one of the longest-serving heads of communications and PA at one of the major family-owned corporate groups and, together with his team, has received several around 40 prizes and awards for outstanding communications. Voigt has been voted "Company Spokesperson of the Year" several times by a broad jury at “Business Journalist”, most recently in 2022.

The outstanding communications manager Annette Siragusano MBA will succeed Thomas Voigt. She was responsible for corporate communications at the listed Comdirect Bank AG for many years and held various management roles in different companies. Most recently, she was Global Head Content Strategy and Cross Channel Campaign Management for the international realtor Engel & Völkers Group. Siragusano joined the Otto Group as Division Manager Group Corporate Communications in October 2022. Since then, she has played a crucial role in many aspects of the division’s structural, procedural and digital realignment. She has consistently demonstrated her communicative strengths, most recently during the changing of the guard at the top of the Group, when her clear strategic communication and effective action were crucial.

Martin Zander will become Siragusano's deputy in Corporate Communications. The lawyer and journalist was initially a state political correspondent for ddp and journalist for TV broadcaster Sat.1, then editor-in-chief at Mhoch4, an agency within the Markenfilm Group. As Senior Vice President Communications, Zander was subsequently responsible for Communications at Yapital Financial AG before moving to Otto Group Holding in May 2016. As Division Manager Group Corporate Communications, he is responsible for key areas of corporate communications, including financial communications.

Bernd Rakers, Head of Public Affairs, will also be reporting directly to Annette Siragusano from March 2026. After holding positions in the European Parliament, at Allianz SE, Zalando and the CDU political party, the political science graduate and his team have been routinely developing the Public Affairs division from their Berlin office since May 2022.

“The handover from Thomas Voigt to Annette Siragusano marks the end of one successful era and the beginning of a new one,” says Petra Scharner-Wolff, CEO of the Otto Group. “We are extremely pleased to have found in Annette Siragusano an extremely experienced, agile and strategically adept communicator and team player for this demanding task. I have every confidence that with her we will continue to set standards in corporate communications in very challenging times. There will still be an opportunity in spring 2026 to pay tribute to Thomas Voigt's enormous achievements for the Group and the Otto family over more than twenty years. However, I would like to thank Thomas for continuing to accompany the change in the division and at the top of the company with his wealth of experience and with all his energy until the beginning of 2026. Still, I would also like to say a big thank you today on behalf of the shareholders and the entire Executive Board.”