Susanne Klatten
Susanne Klatten | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 28, 1962 Bad Homburg, West Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Businesswoman, heiress |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Known for | Heiress of the Quandt family fortune, major shareholder of BMW and Altana |
Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten (née Quandt, born 28 April 1962) is a German billionaire heiress, the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt. As of January 2022, her estimated net worth stood at US$23.4 billion, ranking her as Germany's wealthiest woman and the 50th richest individual worldwide according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Education
Klatten was born in Bad Homburg, West Germany. She obtained a degree in business finance and gained early professional experience at the advertising firm Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt from 1981 to 1983. She further pursued studies in marketing and management at the University of Buckingham and completed an MBA at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, focusing on advertising.
Her career development included roles at Dresdner Bank in London, consulting with McKinsey in Munich, and work at Bankhaus Reuschel & Co., frequently using the name Susanne Kant.
Klatten has been honored with titles such as Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) since 2004 and was named an Honorary Graduate by the University of Buckingham in 2022.
Investments
Following her father's passing, Susanne Klatten inherited his 50.1% ownership in the pharmaceutical and chemical company Altana. She holds a position on Altana's supervisory board and was instrumental in its evolution into a prominent German DAX-listed enterprise. In 2006, Altana AG divested its pharmaceutical division to Nycomed for €4.5 billion, distributing the proceeds as dividends while maintaining its specialty chemicals segment and stock market listing. Klatten retained majority ownership and by 2009 acquired nearly all remaining shares she did not already possess. Together, Altana and SKion—both fully owned by Klatten—have held a combined 46% stake since 2018 in Landa Digital Printing, an Israeli company specializing in digital printing and nanotechnology founded by entrepreneur Benny Landa.
Klatten also inherited a 12.5% shareholding in BMW, which increased to 19.2% following her mother’s death in 2015. Since 1997, she has been a member of BMW’s supervisory board alongside her brother Stefan Quandt.
In 2009, German graphite manufacturer SGL Carbon disclosed that Klatten possessed options allowing her to raise her stake from 8% up to nearly 25%, though not beyond that threshold.
Quandt family activities during WWII
The 2007 documentary The Silence of the Quandts, produced by German broadcaster ARD, revealed that the Quandt family utilized forced labor within their factories during World War II. This disclosure led the family to commission an independent historical investigation into their conduct during the Nazi era. The resulting report published in 2011 determined that "The Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis." As of 2008, no reparations or memorials have been established at former factory locations. The investigation did not implicate BMW.
Personal life
In 1978, authorities foiled an attempted abduction targeting Susanne and her mother, Johanna Quandt.
Susanne met Jan Klatten while undertaking an internship at BMW in Regensburg, where he was employed as an engineer. Although some accounts claim she initially concealed her identity, Jan Klatten has denied this. The couple married in 1990 in Kitzbühel and resided in Munich, raising three children before separating in 2018. Since 2005, she has served on the University Council of the Technical University of Munich and was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 2007. Klatten is also a significant contributor to the centre-right Christian Democratic Union.
In 2007, Klatten became the target of a blackmail plot orchestrated by Swiss national Helg "Russak" Sgarbi, who threatened to disclose purported evidence of an affair. Sgarbi, involved in multiple extortion cases, was apprehended in 2009 and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. His accomplice, Italian hotel proprietor Ernano Barretta—allegedly responsible for secretly recording the incident—was also arrested and received a seven-year sentence in 2012.
See also
External links
- Profile and updates authored by Beth Shaw, rightpundits.com, 9 March 2009
- Pages with script errors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1962 births
- Living people
- People from Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
- German people of Dutch descent
- Alumni of the University of Buckingham
- Female billionaires
- German billionaires
- Businesspeople from Hesse
- 20th-century German businesswomen
- 20th-century German businesspeople
- Quandt family
- Directors of BMW
- McKinsey & Company people
- Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- International Institute for Management Development alumni
- 21st-century German businesswomen
- 21st-century German businesspeople