Profile
Bakel Walden advises boards and senior leaders when the stakes are high.
More than two decades in leadership roles across international media and event organisations, with experience in corporate strategy, from preparing international acquisitions to taking on senior management roles in the businesses that followed, in building digital platforms and in turnarounds under international market conditions.
Roles across Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Switzerland, today based in Zurich with a network active internationally.
Services
Walden Impact is senior advisory for situations where stakeholder interests converge and decisions face public scrutiny. Collaborative, direct, focused on outcomes that hold.
The work begins where the decision is made: in the boardroom, in executive committees, in international governing bodies. Mandates begin with clarity on the situation and the options, and carry through to the decision that holds. Where the mandate reaches further, the work extends into implementation.
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Reshaping Media & Content
Strategic advisory for media organisations and content platforms repositioning themselves, driven by changing audiences, new competition and structural reform. Walden Impact works with executive leadership on how a viable next chapter takes shape, from strategy to structures.
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Scaling Events & Markets
Strategic guidance for live formats and market launches aiming to scale in reach, complexity and visibility. Walden Impact works with organisations scaling an existing format or entering a new market, in Switzerland, across DACH or internationally. The focus: strategic business development, stakeholder dynamics and public impact.
Case: Eurovision Song Contest
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Aligning Governance & Stakeholders
Advisory where governance, stakeholder dynamics and public visibility meet. Walden Impact works with boards, executive leadership and other governing bodies to build common ground between competing interests without compromising their independence. The central question: which decisions hold and how do they remain legitimate under pressure.
Case: Alpha TV
Clarity in transformation in leadership in decisions in change in growth in direction
Cases
Three projects. Decisions in complex situations.
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Eurovision Song Contest
Governance, crisis management and reform for the world’s largest live music event -
Play Suisse
Building a national streaming platform and renegotiating the content architecture -
Alpha TV
Programming reform and stakeholder alignment against the backdrop of the Eurozone crisis
Selected Roles
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RTL Germany
2002-2006
Trainee in the "Entertainment, Show and Daytime" department at RTL Germany in Cologne, then Managing Editor and Deputy Head of Programme at the RTL Group's first digital channel. Daily editorial operations, programme grid and channel build-up.
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RTL Group
2006-2008
Strategy Executive at RTL Group in Luxembourg. International acquisitions, digital business development and Group Synergies.
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Alpha TV
2009-2012
Head of Programme Development, Strategy and Scheduling at RTL Group's Alpha TV in Athens. Repositioning, format development and stakeholder alignment amid the European debt crisis.
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SRF
2012-2017
Head of Programme Strategy at SRF in Zurich. Strategic planning, market and audience research, audience reporting reform and young audiences initiative.
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SRG SSR
2018-2025
Member of the Executive Board and Director of Development and Offering. Digital transformation, research, internal communications, events, international relations and the film industry.
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Mandate
Swiss Commission for UNESCO
since 2020
Member of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, the national link between UNESCO and Switzerland in education, science, culture and communication.
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Education
IMD
2022-2023
Executive MBA in Lausanne. Focus on strategy, leadership and change in complex organisations.
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Mandate
EBU / ESC Reference Group
2023-2025
Chair of the ESC Reference Group, the governing body of the Eurovision Song Contest. Format, rules, financing and final authority in crises.
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Education
INSEAD
2024-2025
International Directors Programme in Fontainebleau. Board service, boardroom dynamics and director-level impact.
Bakel Walden
Founder & Managing Director
