Roland Busch
German physicist who joined Siemens in 1994, rose through its research, automotive and infrastructure businesses, and has been President and CEO of Siemens AG since February 2021, driving its industrial-software pivot through Xcelerator and the Altair and Dotmatics acquisitions.
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- Country
- Germany
- Known for
- President and CEO of Siemens AG (since February 2021)
- Born
- November 22, 1964, Erlangen, Germany
- Education
- Physics, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (doctorate July 1993) and University of Grenoble
- Joined Siemens
- 1994, as project head in Corporate Research and Development
- Managing Board
- Member since 2011; CTO, COO, Chief Sustainability Officer, Deputy CEO and Labor Director
- Signature moves as CEO
- Siemens Xcelerator launch (2022); Altair acquisition (2025); Dotmatics acquisition (2025)
Overview
Roland Busch is a German physicist and business executive who has been President and CEO of Siemens since February 2021, after spending his entire 27-year career to that point inside the company — from a research project head in Erlangen to chief technology officer, deputy CEO, and finally chief executive (Munich Re; Manufacturing Digital). As CEO he has pushed Siemens from industrial conglomerate toward industrial software: launching the Xcelerator platform, buying Altair Engineering and Dotmatics, and posting record profits in fiscal 2025.
Busch was born on November 22, 1964, in Erlangen, Germany (Munich Re). He studied physics at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and at the University of Grenoble in France, earning his doctorate in physics in July 1993 (Munich Re). That scientific training, rather than a finance or consulting background, is the through-line of his career: his first Siemens job, in 1994, was as a project head in Corporate Research and Development, and he spent his early years as a fuel-cell technology expert (Siemens AG).
The long climb inside Siemens
Busch’s path to the top ran through nearly every kind of Siemens business. He headed the Infotainment Solutions division of Siemens VDO from 2002, then moved to Shanghai in 2005 as President and CEO of Siemens VDO Automotive Asia Pacific (Munich Re). Returning to Germany, he led the Mass Transit division in 2007 and became Head of Corporate Strategies in 2008 (Munich Re). In 2011 he joined the Managing Board, initially as CEO of the Infrastructure & Cities sector, and went on to hold the CTO, COO and Chief Sustainability Officer roles (Siemens AG). From 2019 he was Deputy Chair of the Managing Board and Labor Relations Director, and by September 2020 Siemens was already describing him publicly as “Deputy CEO – and future CEO” (Siemens AG). He took over as President and CEO on February 4, 2021, succeeding Joe Kaeser (Siemens AG; Manufacturing Digital).
Outside Siemens, Busch chairs the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, sits on the supervisory board of Munich Re (since April 2024), chairs the university council of his alma mater FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, and serves on the supervisory board of Siemens Healthineers (Siemens AG).
CEO: Xcelerator, acquisitions, and the software pivot
Busch’s CEO agenda has a single theme: combining the real and digital worlds. Its platform expression is Siemens Xcelerator, the open digital business platform launched on June 29, 2022, for customers in industry, buildings, grids and mobility, built from a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware, software and services, a partner ecosystem, and a marketplace (Siemens AG). At the launch event Busch appeared alongside NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang, whose Omniverse platform connects to Xcelerator for industrial-metaverse tools such as digital twins of factories (Siemens AG; Manufacturing Digital).
The acquisition expression of the same strategy came in 2025. Siemens completed its purchase of Altair Engineering on March 26, 2025, at an enterprise value of about $10 billion, with Busch saying the combination would create “the world’s most complete AI-powered design, engineering and simulation portfolio” and extend Siemens’ leadership in industrial software through its ONE Tech Company program (Siemens AG). Four months later, on July 1, 2025, Siemens completed the $5.1 billion acquisition of Dotmatics, a Boston-based life-sciences R&D software company, which Busch framed as building “a new era of innovation in Life Sciences” — an end-to-end digital thread from research through production (Siemens AG).
The financial scoreboard under Busch’s tenure turned in record results: in fiscal 2025, which ended September 30, 2025, Siemens’ net income climbed 16 percent to €10.4 billion — a record for the third consecutive year — on revenue of €78.9 billion, up 5 percent on a comparable basis (Siemens AG). Manufacturing Digital named him the top name on its inaugural Top 100 Manufacturing Leaders list in 2026, crediting a career that “bridged physics, engineering and digital transformation” (Manufacturing Digital). At a CES 2026 keynote he summed up the pitch: “A century ago, Siemens helped build the world in the light of electricity. Now we get to do it again in the age of intelligence” (Manufacturing Digital).
| Role | Period | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Project head, Corporate R&D | 1994–1995 | Erlangen |
| President/CEO, VDO Automotive Asia Pacific | 2005–2007 | Shanghai |
| Head of Corporate Strategies | 2008–2011 | Munich |
| Managing Board member (Infrastructure & Cities CEO, CTO, COO, CSO) | 2011–2021 | Berlin/Munich |
| Deputy CEO and Labor Director | 2019–2021 | Berlin/Munich |
| President and CEO, Siemens AG | Feb 2021–present | Berlin/Munich |
What this profile does not claim
- The doctorate year is given as July 1993 from the Munich Re CV; some secondary biographies say 1994, and that discrepancy is flagged rather than resolved by guesswork.
- No contract extension or end date for Busch’s CEO tenure is claimed; no fully-read source verified one.
- No personal or family details are included; the fully-read sources cover only his education, career and public roles.
- The reported October 2026 automation reorganisation is not claimed, because it was not verified in a fully-read tier1 or tier2 source.
- Busch’s exact current shareholding or compensation is not stated; no fully-read source verified it.
Timeline
- 1964
- Born November 22 in Erlangen, Germany
- 1993
- Earns doctorate in physics (Dr. rer. nat.) from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
- 1994
- Joins Siemens as project head in the Corporate Research and Development Department in Erlangen
- 2005
- Becomes President and CEO of Siemens VDO Automotive Asia Pacific in Shanghai
- 2011
- Joins the Managing Board of Siemens AG, initially as CEO of Infrastructure & Cities
- 2021
- Becomes President and CEO of Siemens AG on February 4, succeeding Joe Kaeser
- 2022
- Launches Siemens Xcelerator, the open digital business platform, on June 29
- 2025
- Completes the Altair acquisition (March 26, ~$10B) and the Dotmatics acquisition (July 1, $5.1B); Siemens posts record fiscal 2025 net income of €10.4 billion
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Doctorate year: the Munich Re CV dates the physics doctorate to July 1993; some secondary biographies give 1994. The profile uses July 1993 and flags the discrepancy
- Whether Busch's CEO contract was extended beyond his first term was not verified in a fully-read source and is not claimed
- Personal and family details are not covered in the fully-read sources and are not claimed
- A markets-blog report of an automation-business reorganisation effective October 2026 was not verified in a fully-read tier1/tier2 source and is not claimed
Sources
9 sources (2 tier 2, 7 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
Built from sources fetched and read in full: the Munich Re supervisory-board CV (an independent third-party publication of Busch's CV), Siemens' own CV, Manufacturing Digital (tier2), and Siemens press releases (first-party, used for uncontested dates, quotes and results). No Wikipedia content is cited. Where the Munich Re CV and Siemens' CV differ in granularity (e.g. role date ranges), the profile follows the more detailed Munich Re version and says so in openItems where it matters.
- Supports: Born 22 Nov 1964 Erlangen; German nationality; physics studies 1983–1989 at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and Grenoble; doctorate July 1993; full dated career ladder 1994–2021; Munich Re supervisory board member since 25 Apr 2024 Open original source
- Supports: Topped inaugural Top 100 Manufacturing Leaders list; ~300,000 employees, close to €80B revenue; physicist-to-CEO narrative; CEO since Feb 2021 succeeding Joe Kaeser; Xcelerator–NVIDIA Omniverse industrial metaverse; CES 2026 industrial AI keynote quotes Open original source
- Roland Busch, Dr. rer. nat. (CV) First-partySupports: President and CEO from Feb 4, 2021; Deputy CEO and Labor Director; Managing Board roles (Infrastructure & Cities CEO, CTO, COO, CSO); 2008 Corporate Strategies; 2007 Mass Transit; 2005 VDO Asia Pacific; 2002 Infotainment; fuel-cell expert; board memberships (APA chairman, Munich Re, FAU council, Healthineers) Open original source
- Siemens Xcelerator – an open digital business platform to accelerate digital transformation First-partySupports: Xcelerator launch June 29, 2022; open digital business platform for industry, buildings, grids, mobility; Busch keynote with NVIDIA's Jensen Huang Open original source
- Siemens strengthens leadership in industrial software and AI with acquisition of Altair Engineering First-partySupports: Busch's Altair announcement quote; $113/share, ~$10B enterprise value; 15 years building industrial software leadership Open original source
- Siemens acquires Altair to create most complete AI-powered portfolio of industrial software First-partySupports: Completion March 26, 2025; Busch completion quote on Xcelerator and ONE Tech Company program; FY2024 revenue €75.9B, net income €9.0B, ~312,000 employees Open original source
- Siemens completes acquisition of Dotmatics First-partySupports: Dotmatics completion July 1, 2025, $5.1B enterprise value; joins Digital Industries Software; TAM +$11B; FY2025 revenue $300M+ at 40%+ EBITDA margin; Busch quote on Life Sciences digital thread Open original source
- Supports: Fiscal 2025: net income €10.4B (+16%, third consecutive record), revenue €78.9B (+5% comparable), orders €88.4B, free cash flow €10.8B record; FY2026 outlook 6–8% comparable revenue growth, EPS pre PPA €10.40–11.00; ambition to double digital business revenue by 2030; dividend €5.35 proposed Open original source
- Supports: Busch described as 'Deputy CEO – and future CEO' in Sept 2020; Siemens Energy listing completing Vision 2020+ realignment Open original source
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