Michael Peters (media executive)

Michael Peters (born 1971 in Flensburg, Germany) is a French-German media executive who established Africanews and served as CEO of Euronews.

Career
Peters is the son of a French mother who worked as a teacher and a German father who served in the German airforce. and earned a Master's degree in Financial Engineering from EM Lyon business school in 1995.

Peters started his professional career at auditing firm Arthur Andersen in Lyon. He worked for the company from 1995 to 1998. Peters then joined news media Euronews as a finance manager in 1998. He was promoted to Chief financial officer in 2000 and was named Euronews' Deputy Managing Director in December 2003. From May 2005 to December 2008, Peters held the position as managing director of Euronews, before being appointed managing director of the executive board of Euronews S.A. in December 2008.

In December 2011, he became Euronews' executive chairman of the board. During his tenure, Media Globe Networks, managed by Naguib Sawiris, became the Euronews majority owner in July 2015. In October 2015, Euronews opened its new headquarters in Lyon, and introduced the Euronews Next digital initiative aimed at reaching younger audiences.

Peters together with Stephen Smith started developing the Euronews subsidiary Africanews in 2013. Peters was appointed president of Africanews SASU in 2014 or 2015. In 2014 or 2015, he founded Africanews SASU, and was appointed as its first president. He led the network through its digital launch on 4 January 2016, and he served as its CEO.

Peters left his position as Euronews' Executive Board Chairman in December 2021 and was appointed Euronews' Chairman of the board of directors. Peters held this position until December 2022. On January 1, 2023, Peters announced that he and Naguib Sawiris will be launching a new worldwide news media.