Stefan Quandt

Stefan Quandt (born 9 May 1966) is a German billionaire heir, engineer and industrialist.

Stefan Quandt
Born (1966-05-09) 9 May 1966
NationalityGerman
EducationKarlsruhe Institute of Technology
OccupationBusinessman
Net worthUS$19.8 billion (January 2021)[1]
Spouse(s)Katharina Quandt
Children2
Parent(s)Herbert Quandt
Johanna Quandt
RelativesSusanne Klatten (sister)

Early life

He was born in Bad Homburg to Herbert Quandt and Johanna Quandt. He earned a degree from the University of Karlsruhe where he studied economics and engineering,[1] from 1987 to 1993.

Career

From 1993–1994, he worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Munich. From 1994 to 1996 he worked for Datacard Group of Minneapolis as a marketing manager in Hong Kong.

On his father's death in 1982 he inherited 17.4% of BMW,[2] the company his father had saved from bankruptcy in 1959. From further purchases he now owns 23.7% of the company.[1]

Quandt also inherited from his father substantial holdings in other companies, many of which he runs through his holding company, Delton AG. These include:

  • 76.8% of CEAG, (small power supplies and recharging devices for mobile phones)
  • 50.3% of Logwin AG (formerly Thiel Logistik, a logistics and freight forwarding company)
  • 100% of Heel GmbH, which makes homeopathic medicines
  • 100% of CeDo Household Products, which makes freezer bags, plastic and aluminium wraps and foils, bin liners, and coffee filters.

With a second holding company, Aqton SE, Stefan Quandt manages his investments in renewable energies:[3]

  • Heliatek, organic solar panels
  • Solarwatt, manufacturer of PV panels, solar batteries and energy management solutions
  • Kiwigrid, grid based renewable energy solution for utilities.

With his mother, he owned 18.3% of Gemplus International, a large digital security company, before its merger to form Gemalto in 2006. He currently serves BMW as a deputy chairman of the supervisory board.[4] He also has held seats on the supervisory boards of Dresdner Bank AG and of the Gerling Konzern Allgemeine Versicherungs AG. Rumours predict he will eventually become head of BMW's supervisory board. His mother Johanna Quandt and sister Susanne Klatten are also substantial shareholders in BMW and other large German companies making them one of the wealthiest families in the world.

Personal life

In autumn 2005, he married Katharina, a software engineer. They have a daughter, born on New Year's Eve that same year. He has been sighted watching football matches but otherwise keeps a low profile.

The Silence of the Quandts

The Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Award winning documentary film The Silence of the Quandts[5][6] by the German public broadcaster ARD described in October 2007 the role of the Quandt family businesses during the Second World War. The family's Nazi past was not well known, but the documentary film revealed this to a wide audience and confronted the Quandts about the use of slave labourers in the family's factories during World War II. As a result, five days after the showing,[7] four family members announced, on behalf of the entire Quandt family, their intention to fund a research project in which a historian will examine the family's activities during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship.[8] The independent 1,200-page study researched and compiled by Bonn historian, Joachim Scholtyseck, that was released in 2011 concluded: "The Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis".[7] As of 2008 no compensation, apology or memorial at the site of one of their factories, have been permitted.[6] BMW was not implicated in the report.[7]

References
  1. "Forbes profile: Stefan Quandt". Forbes. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  2. BMW Group : BMW AG share & dept : Shareholder structure
  3. Handelsblatt: BMW Battery Baron at Full Power
  4. BMW Group : Investor Relations : Supervisory Board
  5. The Silence of the Quandts (English subtitles, German narration) on YouTube
  6. Emma Bode and Brigitte Fehlau (29 November 2008). "The Silence of the Quandts: The history of a wealthy German family. A documentary film by Eric Friedler and Barbara Siebert". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  7. Paterson, Tony (29 September 2011). "BMW dynasty breaks silence on its Nazi past". The Independent. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. Bonstein, Julia (10 December 2007), "Breaking the Silence: BMW's Quandt Family to Investigate Wealth Amassed in Third Reich", Der Spiegel
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