Hans Wall, founder of Berlin based street furniture specialist and outdoor advertiser Wall AG, has retired from the company's Supervisory Board with effect from yesterday. He has been Chairman of the Board since January 2007 and leaves this position on his 70th birthday, in compliance with the Board's statutes. Jean-François Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux SA, who, up to now, has been acting as Vice-Chairman, was appointed as the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board. He has been a member of the Board since 2001. Dr. Oleg de Lousanoff, who joined the Supervisory Board of Wall AG at the beginning of 2010, takes over as Vice-Chairman with immediate effect.

Hans Wall was born on March 17, 1942 in Kuenzelsau in Baden-Wuerttemberg. He trained as a mechanical engineer and, in 1976, founded Wall Verkehrsanlagen GmbH, the first German street furniture provider and outdoor advertiser to run a company owned production plant, based in Ettlingen in Baden.

For 31 years, Hans Wall steers the company's growth. In the course of this period, the company establishes partnerships with more than 50 European metropolises. Today, Wall AG is the number 1 street furniture provider in Germany. In 2007, Hans Wall hands over his position as Chairman of the Executive Board to his son Daniel. In 2009, he sells his shares in Wall AG to French outdoor advertiser JCDecaux SA, which today is the number 1 in outdoor advertising worldwide. Daniel Wall still holds a 9.9 percent stake in Wall AG and leads the company, which is now part of JCDecaux Group, to further success in the national market. Thus, Wall AG wins the tenders for advertising rights in the former DSM stakeholder-cities Muenster, Wiesbaden and Luebeck. In 2010, Wall AG positions itself as the industry's innovation leader in digital technology: In Berlin, the company inaugurates the first underground station worldwide exclusively equipped with digital advertising displays. In addition, in 2011, the company starts marketing its digital City Light Boards (DCLB), the first network of digital advertising panels on public streets. With its new sales-brand WallDecaux Premium Outdoor Sales, Wall AG consolidates its position as a national outdoor advertising marketer.

Hans Wall has received numerous public awards in merit of his cultural and social commitment. In 2000, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz). In 2004, the Jewish Community of Berlin honored his contribution to the struggle against racism and xenophobia and his advocacy of tolerance with the Heinrich-Stahl-Award.

Daniel Wall, Chief Executive Officer of Wall AG: "On behalf of the entire company, I would like to thank my father for his work as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Wall AG. I would also like to take advantage of the occasion and, together with the employees, wish him all the best upon his 70th birthday. For more than three decades, his inventiveness, his entrepreneurial spirit and not least his civic commitment have shaped a successful corporate history which is unique in Germany."

The Supervisory Board of Wall AG thanked Hans Wall for his work on the Board by donating 25,000 Euro for the rebuilding of the baroque bell-tower of the Parochial Church in Berlin's ancient city centre. For Hans Wall, this project is an affair of the heart: "As president of the charity Denk mal an Berlin e.V., which is committed to monuments protection in the German capital, the reconstruction of this historical landmark is of great importance to me. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Supervisory Board for its donation and to extend my very best wishes to Wall AG, its Supervisory Board and its Executive Board for maximum success in the company's further development in the outdoor advertising market."

Wall-Group: Key Facts

• International street furniture supplier and outdoor advertiser in Germany and Turkey, in more than 50 metropolises and cities, amongst others in Berlin, Budapest, Duesseldorf and Istanbul


• Part of the international JC Decaux cooperation – the number one in outdoor advertising worldwide


• Innovative street furniture in highest quality design; more than 28 different design-lines


• Made to measure solutions provided by in-house research and development unit


• Single-source production, cleaning and maintenance guarantee highest quality standards


• Intelligent outdoor advertising on more than 93,100 high profile advertising spaces, including 6,484 advertising spaces on means of transportation such as tramways, busses, underground trains and trucks


• Sales division WallDecaux Premium Outdoor Sales with five regional sales-offices in Germany ensures national marketing competence


• Largest national provider of City Light Poster (CLP) format advertising displays in Germany


• Marketing-portfolio in Germany: analogue and digital advertising displays in 37 cities, AirportNet, ShoppingNet, Leipzig Central Station, Berlinale International Film Festival, Smartphone-App U snap, bluespot, RollAd truck advertising medium, as well as transit advertising in Berlin, including all underground stations


• Number of employees: 764 (as at December 31, 2011)