Christian Kullmann
| Christian Kullmann | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 14, 1969 (age 57) Gelsenkirchen, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | University of Hannover |
| Occupation | Chief executive |
| Employer | Evonik Industries AG |
| Title | Chairman of the Executive Board, Evonik Industries |
| Known for | Chairman of the Evonik Industries executive board |
Christian Kullmann (born 14 March 1969 in Gelsenkirchen) is a German businessman who has been chairman of the executive board, the chief executive position, of the specialty chemicals group Evonik Industries since 2017. Kullmann spent nearly a decade in finance and corporate communications before joining the company that became Evonik, and was appointed to its executive board in 2014 with responsibility for strategy. Kullmann has also held a number of business association and supervisory roles alongside his executive post, and has spoken publicly on German party politics and on European Union climate policy.
Early life and education
Kullmann was born on 14 March 1969 in Gelsenkirchen. Between 1990 and 1994, Kullmann studied economic history at the University of Hannover.
Career
Finance and communications roles, 1994 to 2003
From 1994, Kullmann worked at Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG in Frankfurt am Main. In 1996, Kullmann moved to Dresdner Bank, where he held several positions within the bank's general secretariat. From 2000, Kullmann headed Dresdner Bank's public relations and public affairs department. In 2004, the trade publication prmagazin named Kullmann its PR Manager of the Year.
RAG AG and the formation of Evonik, 2003 to 2014
Kullmann joined RAG AG in 2003, where he led the central division for communications and the executive board office. RAG Beteiligungs AG was restructured into Evonik Industries on 12 September 2007, and Kullmann continued in a senior communications role within the newly formed group. In 2014, Kullmann was appointed to Evonik's executive board, taking responsibility for corporate strategy.
Chief executive of Evonik, since 2017
Kullmann has served as chairman of Evonik's executive board since 2017. As Evonik's chief executive, Kullmann has been a vocal critic of European Union climate regulation. In October 2025, Kullmann called for the abolition or substantial reform of the EU's emissions trading system, which he described as a "CO2 fee". Kullmann argued the scheme put German industry at a competitive disadvantage under changed global economic conditions in which, he said, individual industrial nations were now fighting for themselves rather than cooperating on shared problems. Kullmann also described the EU's planned carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is meant to offset that disadvantage and prevent so-called carbon leakage, as "formal bureaucratic trickery without effect".
Public statements on German politics, 2023
At the end of 2023, following the election victory of right-wing populist Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Kullmann warned against the Alternative for Germany party, saying that whoever votes for the AfD endangers jobs, their own and other people's. Kullmann also called on fellow business leaders to take a more forceful public stance and to exercise their social responsibility, for example as managers of large companies.
Board and honorary roles
Kullmann has sat on the supervisory board of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA since 2007. Kullmann chaired that board from September 2021 until his routine, term-related departure on 25 November 2024. From March 2020 to September 2022, Kullmann was president of the German chemical industry association VCI and vice president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). On the proposal of the CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia, Kullmann was elected a member of the 17th Federal Convention, the body that elects Germany's federal president. Kullmann is also a member of the senate of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), and chairs the economic advisory board of the Goethe-Institut.
In April 2026 Evonik's supervisory board, meeting in extraordinary session, extended Kullmann's contract as chairman of the executive board until 2030, and appointed Michael Rauch as chief financial officer.
Assessment
Kullmann's rise combined two decades of finance and communications experience with a long institutional tenure inside the group that became Evonik, reaching the chief executive post in 2017 after joining its executive board only three years earlier. Kullmann has been unusually outspoken among German corporate leaders, publicly warning against the AfD in 2023 and pressing other executives to take political stances. His criticism of EU emissions trading and carbon border policy restates arguments common to industry lobbying about competitiveness, and should be read as the position of an interested party defending the operating conditions of a chemicals producer, not as independent analysis. The 2004 PR Manager of the Year award reflects recognition within his original professional field of communications rather than his later record as an executive.