Roland Busch

I’m strict about what I consume. Just as AI is only as good as its data, you’re only as good as what you put into you body.

— Roland Busch

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Overview

Dr. Roland Busch
Born	1964 (age 61–62) Erlangen, Germany
Citizenship	German
Education	Doctorate in physics (Dr. rer. nat.)
Alma mater	Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Occupation(s)	Physicist, business executive
Employer	Siemens AG
Known for	Leadership of Siemens AG and its digital transformation strategy
Title	President and Chief Executive Officer
Term	2021–present
Predecessor	Joe Kaeser
Board member of	Munich Re (supervisory board member); Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (chair, University Council); various industry and economic bodies
Children	2
Awards	Bavarian Order of Merit; Handelsblatt "Strategist of the Year"

🧑‍💼 Roland Busch (born November 1964 in Erlangen, Germany) is a German physicist and business executive who has served as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Siemens AG since February 2021, having previously held senior roles including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO. Trained as a quantum theorist, he completed a doctorate in physics at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg before joining Siemens in 1994, and has since spent his entire corporate career at the company.

🌐 Industrial and digital focus. Over the course of three decades at Siemens, Busch has moved from corporate research into global management, combining a background in quantum chromodynamics and applied superconductivity with responsibilities ranging from mass-transit projects to portfolio strategy and technology development. As CEO he has been closely associated with Siemens’ push to “combine the real and digital worlds” through industrial software, data-driven services and an expanded ecosystem of partners, while also serving on external bodies such as the supervisory board of Munich Re, the university council of his alma mater and several German industry associations.

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Early life and education

🎓 Early years in Erlangen. Busch grew up in a middle-class family in the university town of Erlangen, where his father worked as a primary-school principal and his mother was employed at a bank before focusing on raising Busch and his brother. From an early age he showed an interest in mathematics and physics, spending time with technical books and experiments that would later lead him toward academic study in the natural sciences.

🔬 Academic training and research pivot. After studying physics at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Busch completed a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) in 1994 with a thesis in quantum chromodynamics, then turned toward more applied topics through research on high-temperature superconductors under Siemens physicist Günter Ries. The shift from purely theoretical work to research with immediate industrial relevance exposed him to Siemens’ corporate research environment and convinced him to pursue a career in industry; on completing his doctorate he joined Siemens’ central research and development unit as a project manager in 1994 rather than remaining in academia.

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Career at Siemens

🏭 Early Siemens roles. In Siemens’ Corporate Research and Development division, Busch initially worked as a project manager on applied engineering topics before moving through a series of management positions in the company’s automotive and transportation activities. In the early 2000s he headed a business focused on automotive infotainment systems and, from 2005, served in Shanghai as head of Siemens VDO Automotive for the Asia–Pacific region, where he was responsible for expanding the group’s automotive technology operations in China and neighbouring markets.

📈 Executive ascent. Returning to Germany in 2007, Busch took charge of the Mass Transit division in Siemens’ transportation segment and, in 2008, was appointed head of Corporate Strategy, effectively acting as chief strategist during a period of portfolio adjustment and organisational restructuring. He joined the Managing Board of Siemens AG in 2011, later assuming responsibility for research and development as Chief Technology Officer and for day-to-day operations as Chief Operating Officer, before being named Deputy CEO in 2019 and succeeding Joe Kaeser as President and CEO in February 2021 after an 18-month succession process.

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Digital transformation and strategy

💻 Digital platforms and partnerships. As CEO, Busch has articulated a strategic focus on linking Siemens’ long-established strengths in electrification and automation with software, data and artificial intelligence, often summarised as “combining the real and digital worlds”. In 2022 he launched Siemens Xcelerator, a portfolio and partner program intended to provide an open digital platform for industrial customers, and he has pursued partnerships with companies such as NVIDIA on an “industrial metaverse” using physics-based digital twins, Microsoft on the Siemens Industrial Copilot to support factory operators with generative AI, and Amazon Web Services on cloud-based industrial data offerings.

🔄 Investment, organisation and performance. Under Busch’s leadership, Siemens has directed significant investment—reported in the low-tens of billions of euros—towards software, digital services and industrial internet-of-things offerings, while simplifying its research agenda by concentrating corporate R&D on a smaller number of future-oriented fields such as artificial intelligence and digital-twin technology. He has also introduced a group-wide sustainability and ESG framework known as “DEGREE”, setting targets on decarbonisation, ethics and diversity, and has promoted a “One Siemens” culture aimed at greater cross-business collaboration. During the first years of his tenure Siemens reported record profits and free cash flow, with the company’s market capitalisation placing it among Germany’s most valuable listed groups and shareholder returns significantly ahead of many industrial peers.

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Compensation and financial interests

💶 Executive compensation. Busch’s remuneration as CEO of Siemens is heavily performance-related, with his base salary accounting for only around one-fifth of total pay and the remainder composed largely of annual bonuses and long-term share-based incentives tied to financial and strategic targets. In the 2024/25 financial year his total compensation was reported at approximately €12.3 million, up by about one-third from roughly €9.4 million a year earlier, placing him among the highest-paid chief executives in Germany’s DAX index.

📊 Shareholdings and external mandates. Through Siemens’ long-term incentive plans Busch has accumulated share-based awards, including an allotment of about 38,500 Siemens shares reported in late 2025, although he remains a relatively small shareholder in a group with hundreds of millions of shares outstanding. Beyond Siemens he was appointed in 2024 to the supervisory board of reinsurance group Munich Re and holds a number of non-executive and advisory roles, including chairing the university council of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and serving on German and European industry bodies; these positions reflect his standing in corporate and policy circles rather than representing major sources of additional income.

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Personal life and leadership style

🏡 Personal background. Busch has remained closely connected to his hometown, continuing to live in Erlangen while maintaining a small apartment near Siemens’ headquarters in Munich for work commitments. He is married for the second time and has two adult children; German media have highlighted his decision to schedule his most recent civil wedding as the first appointment of the morning so that he could return to the office shortly afterwards, illustrating the priority he places on professional obligations.

🤝 Management style. Colleagues and profiles describe Busch as a technically minded but accessible manager who tends to listen extensively, encourages debate and delegates substantial responsibility to business unit leaders, contrasting him with the more prominent public profile and centralised style of some previous Siemens chiefs. He has promoted a “Team Siemens” ethos and, drawing on his background in research and operations, is often seen as a bridge between engineering teams and corporate decision-makers when explaining complex technologies to internal and external audiences.

🏋️ Fitness routine. Accounts of Busch’s daily habits emphasise a disciplined approach to health, including early-morning weight training and cardio sessions that often begin around 5:30 a.m., even when travelling on business, and a diet oriented toward protein-rich meals rather than fast food. He has stated that maintaining this routine is integral to managing the physical and mental demands of leading a global industrial company, noting that the busier his work schedule becomes, the more important he considers regular exercise.

🎵 Interests and personality. Away from work, Busch has spoken about using music and drawing as ways to relax, returning to the guitar he played in his youth and sketching with pencil and paper as a counterbalance to his data-driven professional focus. He has also described himself as an introvert who is nonetheless willing to take public positions on technology and economic policy, and he often underscores the value of interdisciplinary study, recalling that he combined physics with language courses in French and Spanish during his university years.

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Challenges and controversies

🌍 Geopolitical positioning. Early in his tenure Busch oversaw Siemens’ withdrawal from most business in Russia following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ending a presence that had spanned more than a century and accepting associated financial charges. At the same time he has argued for continued engagement with China, repeatedly stating that Siemens intends to “defend and expand” its market share there and describing the Chinese innovation ecosystem as critical for the company’s future growth, a stance that has drawn both support and criticism in debates over Germany’s economic dependence on China.

🗳️ Statements on extremism and migration. Busch has taken public positions on domestic political issues in Germany, notably using Siemens’ 2024 annual shareholders’ meeting to warn against rising extremism and to emphasise that economic prosperity depends on openness, diversity and the contribution of skilled workers from abroad. Although he did not mention parties by name, media coverage interpreted his remarks as an implicit criticism of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland and broader anti-immigration sentiment.

⚖️ Regulation and sustainability debates. In October 2025 Busch joined the CEO of TotalEnergies and other European business leaders in signing a letter urging European Union policymakers to abandon or significantly revise a proposed corporate sustainability due-diligence law, arguing that parts of the legislation were overly bureaucratic and risked undermining the international competitiveness of European industry. The intervention prompted criticism from some non-governmental organisations and commentators, who questioned the consistency between Siemens’ own sustainability commitments and its position on specific regulatory measures.

🧩 Corporate challenges. Compared with earlier periods of restructuring and spin-offs at Siemens, Busch’s tenure has so far been marked by an emphasis on organic growth and technological innovation rather than large-scale break-ups or layoffs, a stance that has generally been welcomed by employee representatives. Analysts nonetheless note that maintaining this balance will require navigating cyclical downturns, competitive pressures in key markets and the rapid pace of technological change in areas such as industrial automation, artificial intelligence and energy systems.

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Awards and recognition

🏅 Honours and affiliations. Busch’s activities have been recognised by a number of honours and appointments, including the Bavarian Order of Merit awarded in 2023 for services to the state’s economy and technology and a “Strategist of the Year” distinction from the business daily Handelsblatt for his role in Siemens’ digital transformation. He also serves as vice-chairman of the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation, which promotes scientific research, and as a member of the presidium of the Federation of German Industries, reflecting his broader involvement in the interface between science, industry and public policy.

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