FRANKFURT - Thomas Middelhoff is back. Three years after he was booted out of German media giant Bertelsmann, the 52-year-old is once again at the helm of one of Germany's best-known companies, KarstadtQuelle.
But his position this time is a lot less glamorous than his last one.
Instead of the glitzy world of Internet and multimedia, Middelhoff's new job will expose him to harsh economic reality.
And in a country where consumer spending has been stuck in the doldrums for years, Middelhoff faces the unenviable task of steering the troubled department store chain back to profit.
The store closures and massive job cuts they will entail are likely to show a man, who appears to have a permanent smile on his perenially sun-tanned face, in a very different light.
Born in 1953 in Duesseldorf the son of a textile entrepreneur, Middelhoff turned his back on the family business in 1986 to try his luck at Bertelsmann.
Eight years later, he was promoted to Bertelsmann's management board, where he was placed in charge of multimedia activities.
And he led Bertelsmann into the new digital world by forging an alliance with US market leader America Online (AOL).
After Middelhoff became Bertelsmann's chairman in 1998, he went on a spending spree, buying publisher Random House, the online book store, barnesandnoble.com and the majority stake in television group RTL.
Earnings poured in, to the delight of Bertelsmann's owners, the Mohn family.
In fact, in the 2000/2001 fiscal year, Bertelsmann booked more profits than in all the preceding post-war years combined.
But that was not enough for Middelhoff, whose new ambition was to take Bertelsmann public.
However, the Mohn family are not so keen and in the ensuing spat, Middelhoff was booted out in July 2002.
After a year's break, the father of five took over as head of the European operations of private equity firm Investcorp in London. He also took a seat on the board of the New York Times.
Then in May 2004, KarstadtQuelle's main shareholder Madeleine Schickedanz appointed Middelhoff to the supervisory board where he quickly appeared to be more in charge than chief executive Christoph Achenbach.
Middelhoff was rumoured to be instrumental in toppling Achenbach when the massive restructuring programme failed to turn KarstadtQuelle around quickly enough.
At a news conference on Thursday, Middelhoff said he would remain in charge as long as was necessary to steer KarstadtQuelle back into the black.
"I will steer the group back to turnaround," he said, without giving a specific timetable.
"I'm becoming CEO to revitalise business not as a financial investor," he added.

05/12/2005 14:50 GMT