Klaus-Michael Kuehne joined his grandfather’s transportation and logistics company, then Kuehne + Nagel KG, in 1958, eventually taking over as CEO in 1966. Through a holding company, he owns 53% of publicly traded Kuehne + Nagel International AG, which has 70,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Having stepped back as Chairman of the Executive Committee, he now serves as Honorary Chairman. Kuehne currently divides his time between his home in Schindellegi, Switzerland; his chalet in the Swiss ski resort town of Lenzerheide; and a warm-weather hilltop residence facing the port of Andratx, on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Also a frequent visitor to his hometown of Hamburg, he helps to fund and guide the city’s soccer club Hamburger Sport-Verein, commonly known as HSV. In 2003, in partnership with the city of Hamburg and the Technical University of Hamburg, Kuehne founded the Hamburg School of Logistics, later renamed Kuehne Logistics University. In September 2013 Kuehne pledged $54 million to the university over the next 5 years. He also supports the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and Technical University of Berlin. On Mallorca, he transformed a 600-year-old castle, Castell Son Claret, into a hotel that opened in 2013. Also in 2013, he acquired the insolvent InterContinental Hotel in Hamburg — razed to make way for a new, $175-million luxury hotel, The Fontenay. An only child with no children, his charitable foundation the Kuehne-Stiftung, which has its headquarters in Switzerland, will manage his wealth upon his death.
German businessman Klaus-Michael Kuehne has an estimated net worth of $15.9 billion in January 2018. He is known to be the majority owner and executive chairman of Küehne + Nagel, an international transport and logistics company.
Founded by his grandfather August Kuehne, Klaus Michael Kuehne has been running and managing Kuehne & Nagel for more than four decades now. Through Kuehne & Nagel Holding AG, he currently owns 53.3 % stake in Kuhne und Nagel International AG which has already gone public. After stepping down as Chairman of the Executive Committee, he currently serves as the company’s Honorary Chairman. Today, Michael Kuehne owns 28.2 % of the 77.96 % which is held by Hamburgische Seefahrtsbeteiligung “Albert Ballin” GmbH & Co. KG in Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG. Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG is considered as one of the leading container ship operators in the world today.
By the end of 2012, Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd were reported to have a merging. The merging would result in the forming of the fourth largest Container shipping company in the world. Today, the company has sales amounting to 10 billion euros and currently hires over 11,500 employees.
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