Ola Källenius

Sten Ola Källenius (born 11 June 1969) is a Swedish-German business executive. He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Group. Källenius was the first non-German to hold both positions prior to obtaining German citizenship.

Early life

Källenius was born in Västervik, by the age of one the family moved to Malmö, later living in various places throughout Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. The family spent summers at Scania's countryside, where his father's family owned a summer house next to his maternal grandparent's farm. When Ola was 16, the family moved to Stockholm, living across the road from the Stockholm School of Economics. Before starting university, he completed his military service at Tolkskolan – the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter School – which he called 'the most intense 15 months of my life'.

Education

Originally planning to follow his older brother's footsteps in studying at KTH, Källenius instead graduated from Stockholm School of Economics with a master's degree, including an exchange semester at University of St. Gallen. He also earned aCEMS 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". His first major project was in the finance team for setting up production of the Mercedes M-class at a new Alabama plant. 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 2003, he became director of operations at McLaren. Two years later he became managing director of Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Formula 1 engine factory.