| Ola Källenius | |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1969 |
| Birth Place: | Västervik, Sweden |
| Education: | Stockholm School of Economics |
| Chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group, Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-Benz | |
| Predecessor: | Dieter Zetsche |
| Children: | 3 |
Sten Ola Källenius (born 11 June 1969) is a Swedish-German business executive. He is the chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group, and CEO of Mercedes-Benz. He was the first non-German in both positions before he took up German citizenship.
Källenius graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of St. Gallen, with a master's degree, the CEMS Master in International Management (CEMS MIM) and Finance and Accounting.[1]
Källenius began his 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-Benz Cars group.
In 2010, he took over the chairmanship of the management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, which he relinquished to Tobias Moers on 1 October 2013.[2] 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 1 January 2015. On 1 January 2017, he took over the management of the "Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development" division as a member of the executive board.[3] He became the successor to Thomas Weber, who had been responsible for this division since 2004.[4] Britta Seeger succeeded Källenius as board member for Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales.
Källenius succeeded Dieter Zetsche as the Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG in May 2019.[5] In 2023, Mercedes-Benz extended his contract until mid-2029.[6] In his capacity as CEO, Källenius accompanied Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a state visit to China in 2024.[7]
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.[8] [9] 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.[10] The first car was the Mercedes-Benz EQC SUV, launched in the first half of 2019.
Källenius is married; the couple have three sons. His wife is a environmental activist (part of the Green Globe Organisation) who according to Källenius requested that he transition the entire Mercedes-Benz range, including the flagship G-Wagon, to fully plug-in electric vehicles.[11] In July 2023 Källenius obtained German citizenship.[12]