Sten Ola Källenius (born 11 June 1969) is a Swedish business executive. He is the chairman of the board of management of

Mercedes-Benz Group The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

, and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

. He is the first non-German in both positions.

Education

Källenius graduated from the

Stockholm School of Economics The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private business school located in city district Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers BSc, MSc and MBA programs, along with ...

and 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 ...

, with a master's degrees, the CEMS Master in International Management (CEMS MIM) and Finance and Accounting.

Career

Källenius began his career in 1993 at the former Daimler-Benz AG, where he worked in the "International Junior Research Group". After other early assignments in management control, he assumed various management positions within Daimler AG, including head of the "Powertrain" purchasing department of the Mercedes-Benz Cars group. In 2010, he took over the chairmanship of the management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, which he relinquished to

Tobias Moers Tobias Moers (born May 1966) is a German businessman, and was the chief executive (CEO) of Aston Martin from August 2020 to May 2022. Moers was born in May 1966 in Freiburg. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences ...

on 1 October 2013. Since October 2013, he has been a member of the executive board of Mercedes-Benz Cars and was responsible for sales. He was appointed to the board of management of Daimler AG on 1 January 2015. On 1 January 2017, he took over the management of the "Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development" division as a member of the executive board. He became the successor to Thomas Weber, who had been responsible for this division since 2004. Britta Seeger succeeded Källenius as board member for Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales. Källenius succeeded

Dieter Zetsche Dieter Zetsche (; born on 5 May 1953) is a German engineer and business executive. He is the chairman of TUI AG. He was the chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz until 22 May 2019, a role he had held since 200 ...

as the Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG on 22 May 2019.

Positions

Källenius is a strong advocate of

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...

s and

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

s within Daimler. He has pushed the new electric model initiative, product and technology brand EQ, along with a $12 billion investment into Mercedes-Benz's new line of battery-powered vehicles. Within the initiative he has proposed and advocated for a series of ten new and purely electric Mercedes-Benz models to be launched by 2022. The first car was the

Mercedes-Benz EQC The Mercedes-Benz EQC (N293) is a battery electric compact luxury crossover SUV produced by Mercedes-Benz since 2019. It is the first member of the battery electric Mercedes EQ family. History The EQC is based on the Generation EQ concept ...

SUV, launched in the first half of 2019.

Personal life

Källenius is married; the couple have three sons. His wife is another green influencer (part of the Green Globe Organisation) and is pushing the plug-in hybrid and wants him to make the entire Mercedes-Benz range, including the flagship G-Wagon, fully electric.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Källenius, Ola Living people Swedish businesspeople 1969 births Mercedes-Benz Group executives Stockholm School of Economics alumni University of St. Gallen alumni People from Västervik Municipality Mercedes-Benz in Formula One