Hasso Plattner (born 21 January 1944) is a German businessman. A co-founder of SAP SE software company, he has been chairman of the supervisory board of SAP SE since May 2003. As of August 2020, Forbes reported that he possessed a net worth of US$17.9 billion.
The majority of Plattner’s fortune is derived from his stake in SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software, according to its website. The billionaire holds 3.2% of the Walldorf, Germany-based company through Hasso Plattner Single Asset, according to its 2022 annual report. He has another 3.4% through Hasso Plattner Foundation, according to the report.
Plattner has collected more than 4.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) from share sales through 2022, according to company filings and an analysis of Bloomberg data. The value of his cash investments is based on these proceeds as well as dividends, charitable contributions, taxes and market performance.
Christiane Rosenbach, a spokesperson at the Hasso Plattner Institute, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the net worth calculation.
Biography
Early life
Plattner was born to German ophthalmologist Horst Plattner (1918–2001) and his wife shortly before the end of the Second World War, in Berlin. He grew up in Bavaria.
The son of an eye surgeon, he was sent to boarding school in Bavaria at the age of 15, after the divorce of his mother and father. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Plattner studied engineering and after graduating from the Technical University of Karlsruhe took a job as a salesman with IBM in Mannheim.
He quit IBM in 1972 and along with four other IBM defectors co-founded SAP the same year. The group was motivated in part by their former employer’s rejection of their suggestion to create financial software packages for businesses. Together, they built Walldorf, Germany-based SAP into the world’s largest manufacturer of business management software.
The billionaire served as one of the company’s two chief executives until 2003, when he stepped aside to become chief software adviser and chairman of the supervisory board.
Plattner is divorced, has two children and lives in Potsdam, Germany.
Career
Plattner set up SAP with four co-founders in 1972. He stepped down as co-chief executive in 2003 at age 60. He has since been serving as chairman of the company’s supervisory board and played an influential role in the company’s governance, orchestrating the hiring of co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein in 2019. He has reduced his stake in SAP several times; as of 2020, he owned a 5.89% stake, making him the company’s largest individual shareholder.
In 1998, Plattner founded the non-profit Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). He is Chair of Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts and Professor of Enterprise Systems at HPI.
In 2005, Plattner set up his own venture capital fund, Hasso Plattner Ventures, with more than 25 million euros. By December 2009, HPV managed €150 million and had 17 companies in its portfolio, including online cruise portals Dreamlines. An affiliate fund, HPV Africa in Cape Town, was founded in 2008, with €29 million, and soon invested in five companies. Plattner provides the lion’s share of this investment capital. In September 2010, HPV invested $6 million in Israeli software company Panaya in exchange for the company’s stakes.
Sporting interests
In 2005, Plattner’s maxZ86 maxi yacht set a record at the Transpacific Yacht Race and was the scratch boat when it led a five-boat assault on the record for monohulls. She finished the race in 6 days, 16 hours, 4 minutes, and 11 seconds to win “the Barn Door” trophy, a slab of carved koa wood traditionally awarded to the monohull with the fastest elapsed time.
Plattner is a keen golfer. He owns the Fancourt Golf Estate, which has three Gary Player-designed championship courses, in addition to the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, California. The Links of Fancourt staged the 2003 Presidents Cup matches between the US and an international team, captained by Gary Player.
Plattner is also an investor in San Jose Sports & Entertainment Enterprises, which owns the San Jose Sharks, and other related properties as well as managing the city owned SAP Center at San Jose. In 2013, he bought out two of the partners in SJS&E, and began serving as the Sharks’ representative on the National Hockey League‘s board of governors. The absentee owner rarely has been seen in the San Jose area over the years, however, as general manager Mike Grier, and his staff run the hockey operations.
Milestones
- 1944 Hasso Plattner is born in Berlin, Germany.
- 1968 After graduation, starts career at IBM.
- 1972 Along with four ex-IBM colleagues, founds SAP.
- 1988 SAP becomes a publicly traded company.
- 1994 Purchases South African golf resort, Fancourt Estate.
- 2003 Steps down as co-CEO; becomes chairman of supervisory board.
- 2005 Donates $35 million to Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.
- 2015 Hasso Plattner Ventures becomes main investment vehicle for the billionaire.
