Swedish native Ola Källenius is Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG. After finishing school and graduating from the Grammar School in Danderyd, he did his military service in the Swedish army in 1988/89. From 1989 to 1993 he studied at the Stockholm School of Economics and at the University of St. Gallen.
He joined Daimler in 1995 as Corporate Controlling Manager in the USA and has held many positions within the company since then. Among other positions, he was Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd in England and Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
He has been a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 1, 2015, and Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since end of Annual Meeting of Daimler AG on May 22, 2019. He is also Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Daimler Truck AG.
Källenius is a strong advocate of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles within Daimler. He has strongly advocated 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 fully electric car was the Mercedes-Benz EQC SUV, launched in the first half of 2019.
Under Källenius’ leadership the company’s credo is: “At Mercedes-Benz, we have set ourselves the ambitious target to make the transformation of mobility a success story. By joining ‘The Climate Pledge’ we are building on our goal to consistently pursue emission-free mobility and sustainable vehicle production.
We stand with Amazon, Global Optimism and the other signatories of The Climate Pledge, in a commitment to being net zero carbon by 2040 – ten years ahead of The Paris Agreement. I am pleased that we will be able to gain even more momentum on our sustainability offensive with this step.”