Founder Profile
Hasso Plattner
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Hasso Plattner?
Hasso Plattner is a founder of SAP SE, which was founded in 1972 with Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira and Claus Wellenreuther.
- Company founded
- SAP SE
- Founded
- 1972
- Co-founders
- Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira and Claus Wellenreuther
Background
Studied communications engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and worked at IBM Germany before co-founding SAP in 1972.
Founding Story
Hasso Plattner is the SAP co-founder most closely tied to its technology roadmap, from R/3 to the in-memory HANA database. He was co-CEO from 1988 to 2003 and chaired the Supervisory Board from 2003 until he stepped down at the May 2024 annual general meeting. He also founded the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam and funded the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.
Hasso Plattner was born in 1944 in Berlin.
Plattner was born on January 21, 1944. He chaired SAP's supervisory board from 2003 to 2024.