Christian Klein

Christian Klein (born 1980) is a German business executive serving as Chief Executive Officer of SAP SE since April 2020, making him the youngest CEO of a DAX 30 company at age 39. Born in Mühlhausen, Germany, Klein joined SAP in 1999 as a student intern at age 15-19 and spent his entire career at the enterprise software giant, rising through finance and operations roles including CFO of SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Chief Controlling Officer, and Chief Operating Officer (2016-2021). After a brief co-CEO stint with Jennifer Morgan (October 2019-April 2020), he became sole CEO and led SAP's dramatic cloud-first transformation, pivoting from traditional on-premise software to cloud and AI-driven solutions. Under his leadership, SAP's share price has doubled, establishing the company as Europe's most valuable technology firm. Klein holds a diploma in International Business Administration from University of Cooperative Education Mannheim and serves on the Supervisory Board of Adidas AG. His compensation and personal life details remain private as SAP does not publicly disclose executive pay in detail, though his total package is estimated at €7-10 million annually. At 44, Klein represents a new generation of technology CEOs who grew up entirely within one company, demonstrating that long internal career paths can still produce transformative leaders in the digital age.

Key facts: Youngest DAX CEO at 39 | Started at SAP age 15-19 as intern | Sole CEO since April 2020 | Share price doubled | Cloud transformation leader Career: 25+ years at SAP | CFO SuccessFactors | COO 2016-2021 | Co-CEO 2019-2020 | CEO 2020-present Education: Diploma International Business Administration, University of Cooperative Education Mannheim Other: Adidas AG Supervisory Board member | Estimated compensation €7-10M annually