Axel Oberwelland (born 1 August 1966) is a German

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

heir and businessman, the owner of the confectionery manufacturer

August Storck August Storck KG () is a German candy producer with headquarters in Berlin, owned by Axel Oberwelland. Its subsidiary in the United Kingdom has been the company Bendicks in Winchester since 1988. The main facility of Storck in Germany is in ...

, founded by his eponymous great-grandfather in 1903. The company is best known for its brands

Werther's Original Werther's Original (from the original German: Werthers Echte) is a brand of caramel candy owned by the German company '' August Storck KG'', based in Berlin, Germany. The candy is popular in Europe and North America. History The sweet brand i ...

Riesen Riesen (; ) (German for ''Giants'') is a confectionery of chocolate and chocolate-flavored caramel produced and distributed by August Storck KG, a German confectioner that also produces Werther's Original. In the US, the candy is individually wr ...

and

Toffifee Toffifee (known in the United States as Toffifay) is a German brand of caramel candies, owned by the Berlin-based German company August Storck KG. Toffifee are caramel cups containing nougat, caramel and a hazelnut, topped with a chocolate b ...

Early life

Axel Oberwelland was born on 1 August 1966 in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

, the son of Klaus Oberwelland. He went to high school in Bielefeld, followed by a boarding school near St. Moritz, Switzerland, and then studied business at the

University of St. Gallen A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, Switzerland.

Career

He has led the company since his father Klaus Oberwelland retired in 2003, to coincide with the company's centenary. In April 2018, his net worth was estimated at $3.9 billion.

Personal life

He is married to Bergit Oberwelland, with four children, and lives in Berlin, Germany.

References

1966 births German billionaires Living people University of St. Gallen alumni Businesspeople from Bielefeld {{Germany-business-bio-stub