Christian Klein

Christian Klein stands as one of Europe's most successful technology leaders, serving as Chief Executive Officer of SAP SE since April 2020. Born in Mühlhausen, Germany in 1980, Klein represents a remarkable success story of organic leadership development, having transformed from a 15-year-old student intern to CEO of Europe's most valuable company. Under his visionary leadership, SAP has undergone one of the most significant transformations in enterprise software history, pivoting from traditional on-premise solutions to a cloud-first, AI-driven enterprise platform. Klein has spearheaded SAP's seismic shift to become a leading cloud company, with the company's share price doubling during his tenure as CEO. His strategic focus on Business AI and cloud computing has positioned SAP at the forefront of the next technological revolution, which he describes as 'the greatest opportunity for the technology industry in two decades.' Klein's decisive leadership has driven SAP's market capitalization to unprecedented heights of €365 billion, making it the most valuable company in Europe by a wide margin. His achievements include leading the company through record-breaking financial performance, with 2024 being declared 'the best year in SAP's history,' featuring total revenue growth returning to double digits for the first time since 2018. Klein's leadership philosophy emphasizes the practical application of technology to solve real business challenges, advocating that leaders cannot solve every problem with technology alone. His recognition as Cloud Wars CEO of the Year 2023 underscores his impact in transforming SAP into a cloud-centric organization with over €63 billion in total cloud backlog by the end of 2024.