Markus Krebber
Everyone wants climate protection, and everyone wants Germany to remain industrially competitive… The rate of expansion has to more than double.
— Markus Krebber[3]
Overview
Dr Markus Krebber | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 16 February 1973 Kleve, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany |
| Citizenship | German |
| Education | Economics and business administration |
| Alma mater | Gerhard Mercator University, Duisburg; Humboldt University of Berlin; Indiana University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation(s) | Business executive, economist |
| Employer | RWE AG |
| Known for | Leading the transformation of RWE towards renewable energy |
| Title | Chief Executive Officer of RWE AG |
| Term | 1 May 2021 – present |
| Predecessor | Rolf Martin Schmitz |
| Board member of | Vice President of BDEW; member of the Presidential Committee of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) |
| Spouse | Married |
| Children | 5 |
🌍 Markus Krebber (born 16 February 1973) is a German economist and business executive who has served as chief executive officer (CEO) of RWE AG since 1 May 2021.[4] He joined the company in 2012 after a career in consulting and banking, becoming CEO of RWE Supply & Trading, a member of the executive board and chief financial officer (CFO) before his appointment as CEO. Under his leadership RWE has pursued a strategy of expanding its renewable energy portfolio and phasing out coal as part of Germany's energy transition.
⚡Energy transition leadership. As CEO, Krebber has positioned RWE as a major investor in wind, solar and storage projects while managing the politically sensitive phase-out of coal-fired power and the security-of-supply challenges following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[5][6] His tenure has combined large-scale capital expenditure plans with commitments to exit coal in Germany by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, while navigating shareholder pressure over returns and criticism from climate activists over projects such as the Lützerath lignite mine.[7][8]
Early life and education
🎓Lower Rhine upbringing and apprenticeship. Markus Krebber was born on 16 February 1973 in Kleve in the Lower Rhine region of what was then West Germany and grew up in the surrounding area.[4] After completing his Abitur he joined a vocational banker training programme at a small Deutsche Bank branch in his hometown of Emmerich am Rhein, where he initially performed routine tasks such as sorting mail and preparing paper account statements before progressing to advising retail clients on savings and investment products.[9] This early apprenticeship gave him a ground-level view of banking in a cross-border region still using Deutschmarks and Dutch guilders.
🌱Academic training in economics and finance. Seeking deeper theoretical grounding, Krebber went on to study economics and business administration at Gerhard Mercator University in Duisburg and spent part of his studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the United States.[10] He completed a degree roughly equivalent to a German Diplom and later earned a doctorate in economics from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2007, specialising in finance.[4] The combination of local roots, international exposure and academic research shaped his analytical approach to business and capital markets.
Banking and consulting career
💼Consulting at McKinsey & Company. After finishing his studies, Krebber joined the management consultancy McKinsey & Company in 2000, working primarily on projects for financial institutions and capital markets clients.[10] He has since described this period as a form of basic training that exposed him to a wide range of strategic and operational challenges in banking and taught him to work in interdisciplinary teams under tight deadlines.[5]
🏦Senior roles at Commerzbank. In 2005 Krebber moved from advising banks to working inside one when he joined Commerzbank AG.[10] During the global financial crisis and its aftermath he held a series of senior positions, including responsibility for the post-merger integration of Dresdner Bank and, from 2009, serving as divisional board member and head of Group Integration at the age of thirty-six.[4] He later became head of Group Finance, overseeing Commerzbank's financial steering and capital management until 2012, which established his reputation as a specialist for complex restructuring and integration tasks.[4]
Career at RWE
🔌Move into the energy sector. In 2012, seeking what he described as a new challenge after the upheavals of the financial crisis, Krebber left banking for the energy industry and joined RWE's trading subsidiary RWE Supply & Trading as chief financial officer.[4][9] The move took him into what he called a completely different industry at a time when Germany's Energiewende and the rapid growth of renewable energy were reshaping European power markets.
🌬️Trading leadership and appointment as RWE CFO. In 2015 RWE promoted Krebber to chief executive officer of RWE Supply & Trading, placing him in charge of the group's energy trading and wholesale business during a volatile period for commodity prices and regulatory change.[10] The unit stabilised under his leadership, and in October 2016 he joined the executive board of RWE AG as chief financial officer, just as the group was carving out its networks and retail activities into a separate company and rethinking its future role in the energy system.[4][11]
☀️Strategic restructuring and asset swap with E.ON. As CFO, Krebber was one of the key architects of RWE's large-scale portfolio restructuring, including a complex asset swap with rival E.ON agreed in 2018 that saw RWE shed most of its retail and network operations while acquiring a major renewables business.[11] The transaction turned RWE from a traditionally coal- and nuclear-heavy utility into one of Europe's largest generators of wind and solar power and laid the groundwork for its repositioning as a focused provider of energy generation and trading.
🚀Chief executive officer and “Growing Green” strategy. On 1 May 2021 Krebber succeeded Rolf Martin Schmitz as CEO of RWE AG.[4] Shortly after taking office he presented the “Growing Green” strategy, under which RWE plans to invest around €50 billion in green technologies between 2021 and 2030 to expand its portfolio of wind, solar, battery storage and flexible generation to approximately 50 gigawatts of capacity.[5] The company has also committed to exiting coal-fired power generation in Germany by 2030 and has set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.[6]
🌎International expansion and U.S. acquisitions. Under Krebber's leadership RWE has pursued international growth, notably in the United States, where in 2022 it agreed to acquire the renewable energy business of New York-based utility Con Edison for US$6.8 billion.[12] The deal significantly expanded RWE's U.S. renewables portfolio and was accompanied by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund acquiring a minority stake in RWE, strengthening the group's capital base for further growth.[12] At the same time the company has reorganised internally to focus on offshore wind, onshore wind and solar, hydrogen and flexible generation.
📈Market performance and investor perceptions. RWE's earnings have benefited from the growth of its renewables portfolio and periods of high wholesale power prices, yet the company's share price during Krebber's early years as CEO generally traded in the low €30s, broadly similar to levels around the time of his appointment.[13] Analysts and some shareholders have debated whether the market fully reflects RWE's strategic repositioning, a question that has informed later activist campaigns.[8]
💶Executive remuneration. As chief executive of a DAX-listed utility, Krebber receives multi-component remuneration comprising fixed salary, annual bonus and long-term share-based incentives. In 2023 his total compensation at RWE amounted to about €6.4 million, an increase of around 3 percent over the previous year and placing him near the middle of the range for chief executives of Germany's largest listed companies.[14] A substantial share of his pay is linked to performance indicators such as earnings, shareholder return and progress on strategic and sustainability targets.
📊Share ownership and external roles. In addition to stock received under incentive plans, Krebber has bought RWE shares on the open market; in December 2024 he purchased nearly 10,000 shares at a price of €30.76 per share, a transaction worth just over €300,000 and interpreted as a signal of confidence in the company's prospects.[13] His broader financial influence extends through industry associations: he serves as vice president of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and sits on the presidential committee of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), roles that give him a voice in national and European energy and industrial policy debates.[10]
Personal life
👨👩👧👦Family and background. Krebber is married and has five children, an unusually large family for a top corporate executive.[10][4] He has maintained close ties to the Lower Rhine region where he grew up and is frequently described as down-to-earth and informal in manner, characteristics that contrast with the scale of the multinational group he leads.[15]
🏃Habits, interests and leadership style. In a widely noted social media post he shared a photograph of the Deutsche Bank sports bag he received as a trainee in 1992, noting that he still uses it as his gym bag and presenting its longevity as a small example of sustainability.[9] Commentators have used such anecdotes, together with his public interviews, to portray Krebber as analytically minded but approachable, with a pragmatic and collegial leadership style that emphasises long-term resilience and maintaining personal energy for demanding work.[16]
Controversies and challenges
📉Shareholder activism and capital allocation debates. In the mid-2020s Krebber faced mounting pressure from activist investors who questioned RWE's heavy investment plans relative to shareholder returns. In early 2025 hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed a stake of almost 5 percent in RWE and called for scaled-back capital expenditure and larger share buy-backs, arguing that the company's decarbonisation strategy was not adequately reflected in its market valuation.[8] Krebber responded by engaging in dialogue with investors and moderating some of RWE's spending plans, including a multi-billion-euro reduction in its 2025–2030 investment programme, while maintaining the core direction of the “Growing Green” strategy.[5][12]
🌋Coal phase-out and the Lützerath dispute. On the societal front, Krebber has been at the centre of debates over the timing and implementation of Germany's coal phase-out. In 2023 RWE and the German government agreed that RWE would end coal-fired power generation in the country by 2030, earlier than previously mandated, while allowing the company to extract lignite at the hamlet of Lützerath to safeguard short-term security of supply.[7] The subsequent clearance and demolition of the village triggered protests from climate activists and criticism of RWE, while Krebber emphasised the binding political framework and reiterated that the company would not support prolonging coal use beyond what was deemed necessary for a secure transition.[15][6]
🔥Energy crisis and policy advocacy. The European energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 further complicated the environment in which Krebber operated. Surging gas prices and fears of shortages led to calls for windfall taxes and to temporary extensions of lignite and coal capacity, while utilities like RWE recorded higher earnings from generation.[6] In interviews, Krebber argued that climate protection and industrial competitiveness had to advance together, warning of the danger of creeping de-industrialisation if energy costs remained high and calling for the rapid removal of administrative hurdles to the build-out of renewables and grid infrastructure.[5][6]
Other activities and legacy
🌐Industry influence and public profile. Beyond his executive duties, Krebber plays a prominent role in German and European business associations through his positions at BDEW and BDI, where he contributes to discussions on energy, climate and industrial policy.[10][6] He is a regular speaker at conferences and policy forums on the energy transition and has been profiled as a figure balancing the objectives of decarbonisation, security of supply and economic competitiveness.[15]
🧭Contract extension and assessment. In July 2025 RWE's supervisory board extended Krebber's contract as CEO by five years, securing his tenure until the end of June 2031 and signalling confidence in the course he has set for the group.[17] Commentators have noted that, as an executive who entered the energy sector from consulting and banking, he exemplifies a new generation of utility leaders whose backgrounds in finance and strategy are seen as assets in steering companies through the complexities of the energy transition.[18][4]
References
- ↑ "Markus Krebber – between energy transition and security". Table.Briefings.
- ↑ "Markus Krebber – between energy transition and security". Table.Briefings.
- ↑ "Markus Krebber – between energy transition and security". Table.Briefings.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 "Dr Markus Krebber". RWE AG. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "The dynamic is crucial – Markus Krebber in interview with WirtschaftsWoche". RWE AG. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "New RWE head calls for "urgent" removal of hurdles for rapid renewables expansion". Clean Energy Wire. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Climate activists to be evicted from German town next to coal mine in January". Clean Energy Wire. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Finanzinvestor Elliott setzt RWE-Chef Krebber unter Druck". n-tv. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "It is a blast from the past. Every time I use this certain bag to go to the gym, it reminds me of when I started my working life". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 "Dr Markus Krebber". Handelsblatt. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "RWE CEO signals he might step down next year – Spiegel". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Germany's RWE buys Con Edison clean energy in $6.8 billion U.S. shift". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "RWE-Aktie: Eigengeschäft von Führungskraft gemeldet". finanzen.net. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Gehälter der Dax-40-Chefs 2023: Mercedes-Chef Källenius führt". WirtschaftsWoche. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Markus Krebber – between energy transition and security". Table.Media. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "RWE's Markus Krebber on building energy reserves to keep focused on the long term". IMD. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "RWE verlängert Vertrag mit Chef Krebber bis 2031". boerse.de. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "CEO Dialogue #34 – Markus Krebber, RWE". IMD. Retrieved 2025-11-20.