Change of CEO at LINK

Benedikt Lüthi hands over to Lukas Theiler

Lukas Theiler, previously COO / CFO, will assume managerial responsibility for LINK as of February 1, 2023. He will take over from Benedikt Lüthi who, following YouGov’s takeover of LINK in December 2021, assumed overall responsibility for the DACH region. Lüthi will remain President of the Board of Directors at LINK, but will focus more on expanding the German business and other tasks within the YouGov Group in future.

Benedikt Lüthi took over the role of CEO in November 2017. Prior to that, he was a member of LINK’s Administrative Board. Under his leadership, LINK underwent a transformation characterized by a strong digitalization and modernization of the company. In this phase, LINK was able to assert its market leadership, increase sales and triple its operating result. In addition to implementing a site concept, LINK also updated its logo and external image during this time. With the sale of LINK to YouGov plc., in which Lüthi played a significant role, it was also possible to find a good, sustainable solution for succession to the long-term ownership of LINK in 2021.

At his departure, Lüthi said: “As an industry newcomer in market research, I’ve been consistently impressed by the LINK employees’ specific know-how, wealth of ideas and close customer relationship. Over the last five years I have learned a lot from the LINK team in general, as well as from my colleagues in management.”

We would like to take the opportunity to sincerely thank Benedikt Lüthi and are pleased that he will stay with us at the YouGov Group. We wish him much success.

Lukas Theiler, who has held the role of COO / CFO at LINK since August 2018, will take over management of LINK as CEO as of February 1, 2023. Lukas Theiler has a Master of Science degree in computer sciences and psychology from the University of Fribourg and began his career in research on the topics of “artificial intelligence and computer vision”. In various roles in the fields of IT engineering, consulting and management in national and international large enterprises, his focus never deviated from the topics of customers, leadership, innovation, digital transformation and operational excellence. At LINK, Lukas Theiler was previously responsible for the Services business unit, which comprises the topics of IT, data protection, field duty, operations, finances, HR and marketing. In this role, he was responsible for digitalization of LINK and increasing its efficiency. Lukas Theiler has been Deputy CEO of LINK since February 2021 and had already assumed managerial responsibility in many areas. In the next phase, he will oversee and manage LINK’s integration into the YouGov Group in order to further strengthen the merging of the two companies and the utilization of synergies.

Of his new role, Lukas Theiler said: “I look forward to leading LINK in its integration into the YouGov Group. It will enable us to support our customers in the transformation of market research even better with new methods and approaches, even on a global scale.”

We are pleased that Lukas Theiler will assume the role of CEO. He knows LINK very well and has made significant contributions to its success in recent years. We wish Lukas Theiler much success and satisfaction in his new role.