Hasso Plattner

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 and completed his masters degree in communications engineering from the University of Karlsruhe in 1968.

In 1972, Plattner and four colleagues left IBM to launch SAP, where he eventually was co-chief executive (together with Henning Kagermann) from 1998. He stepped down in 2003 at age 60.

From 2003 to 2024, Plattner chaired 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.

Plattner is married to Sabine Plattner, a former teacher. The couple has two daughters, who grew up in Heidelberg, Germany.

Plattner lives in San Jose, California, which he considers his 'adopted home'. Since his retirement from SAP he hasn't visited Germany. The family also maintains residences in Potsdam's Babelsberg district, Sylt and Yzerfontein.

Plattner signed The Giving Pledge in February 2013. In 2015, he set up the Hasso Plattner Foundation and the charity's activities span education, art and culture, and conservation. Since 2017, the foundation has been headquartered at Villa Wunderkind in Potsdam, the former home of German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop.

HIV/AIDS

Plattner has had strong connections with South Africa over the years and spends some of his time living there, while participating in charitable work. In the fight against AIDS, he supports the universities of KwaZulu Natal and Cape Town.

Plattner's donation of €6 million for the Isombululo programme for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS was announced at the Presidents Cup, one of the world's leading international golf tournaments in 2003 and it is suggested that this amount will have helped 360,000 people. In the spring of 2005, Plattner personally covered the costs of the 46664 benefit concert, which took place at his Gary Player-designed golf course, The Links of Fancourt in George which is near Cape Town and which was broadcast globally on television. Proceeds went towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an organisation co-founded by former South African president Nelson Mandela.