Ola Källenius


Ola Källenius is the chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG, and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

Education

Källenius graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of St. Gallen, with a master's degrees in International Management and Finance and Accounting.

Career

Källenius began his professional 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 Car Group.
In 2010, he took over the chairmanship of the management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, which he relinquished to Tobias Moers on October 1, 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 January 1, 2015. On January 1, 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 replaced Dieter Zetsche as the Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG on May 22, 2019.

Positions

Källenius is a strong advocate of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles 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 SUV, launched in the first half of 2019.

Personal life

Källenius is married; the couple have three sons. His wife is a green influencer and is pushing the plug-in Hybrid and wants him to make the entire range including the flagship G-Wagon fully electric.