Otto Happel (born 9 February 1948) is a Swiss-based German billionaire businessman, the former owner and CEO of

GEA Group GEA Group AG (Gesellschaft für Entstaubungsanlagen) is a German corporation, mostly active in the food and beverages sector, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The company is listed on the German MDAX. History The ancestor of today's GEA ...

. As of October 2021, '' Forbes'' estimated his net worth at US$3.2 billion.

Early life

Happel received his PhD in engineering from

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), also known as North Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Rhine-Westphalia Technical University of Aachen, Technical University of Aachen, University of Aachen, or ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hoch ...

Career

In 1974, Happel became CEO of

, a small family business established by his father in 1920 with approximately Euro 100 million in revenues. Over the next 25 years, he transformed GEA into a global system supplier and introduced machinery and plants for the food processing industry, power industry, air-conditioning and refrigeration industry. After making over 70 acquisitions, GEA had over 200 subsidiaries in 60 countries. In 1989 he took his company public at the Frankfurt stock exchange, but kept the majority of the voting stock in the family. By 1999, Happel had increased GEA's revenues to over €2.6 billion, as well as its net earnings proportionally. In 1999 he merged his controlling stake with Germany's MG Technologies, remained the largest shareholder of the combined businesses and, once MG Technologies merged into GEA Group AG, sold his dominant stake to institutional investors in 2006. GEA Group AG is the largest listed German machinery manufacturer and is broadly diversified. In 2018, it accounted for revenues of approximately EUR 4,8 bn and employed approximately 18,600 people. He was a member of the supervisory board at

Commerzbank Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambur ...

from May 1993 until April 2013.

Personal life

Happel is married, with six children, and lives in

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

, Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Happel, Otto 1948 births Living people People from Bochum People from Lucerne RWTH Aachen University alumni German billionaires German chief executives German expatriates in Switzerland 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople