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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Born during WW2 in Freiburg, Germany, Klaus Tschira grew up mostly in that part of southern Germany which is now known as Baden-Wuerttemberg with some intermitting years in North-Rhine / Westphalia. During the years at high school he developed some preferences for the natural sciences and Mathematics, which were consequently continued by studying physics at the University of Karlsruhe, where he got his degree (the 'Diplom', approximately equivalent to a MSc) in early 1966.
Klaus then joined IBM Germany's branch office in Mannheim, Germany, where he served as a Systems Engineer until 1972, consulting to smaller and larger IBM customers.
In the early '70s the 'unbundling' gave rise to new and competitive markets for software and consulting. Klaus Tschira and four colleagues from the same IBM branch office took the chance and left IBM as per April 1, 1972. They established their own software company named initially 'Systemanalyse + Programmentwicklung' (meaning: Systems, Analysis + Program Development) which later developed into SAP AG, the worlds leading supplier of packaged business software.
His professional experience at SAP involved co-design and co-implementation of the basic system kernel of the SAP systems (R/1 and R/2), and application components in financials, purchasing and warehousing, including consulting pertaining to these applications. He is the father of ABAP (versions 0 through 3) and for some years was responsible for all reporting within the SAP systems, including consulting and hot line service for reporting. Areas of experience during the early years of SAP include Data Management and Data Base Systems, Transaction Monitors, buffering algorithms, Operating Systems, design for multiple language support in the SAP systems and comparative studies in human and machine translation for the language pair German to English.
In 1982, Klaus Tschira took responsibility for a new line of software products, the Personnel / Human Resource Management Systems, which grew from scratch to become worldwide market leader by 1994. Unexpectedly, designing a new Payroll System opened up an access to Artificial Intelligence (especially rule based systems), designing Help and Documentation Systems gave an access to Hypertext and Object Orientation, which in turn came to fruition in modeling organizational structures and process modeling.
Klaus has traveled - mostly on business - to all continents, helping SAP subsidiaries, discussing with prospects and customers, consulting and software partners, speaking at numerous conferences (SAP user conferences and professional conferences on HR and IT). Until May 7, 1998 he served as a member of the executive board of SAP AG, today Klaus is a member of it`s supervisory board.
While at SAP, Klaus Tschira has been serving in diverse functions:
- He was a member of IBM's European Software Vendors' Advisory Council 1990 to 1992.
- He serves as the chairman of the 'Friends of the FZI' (FZI = Forschungszentrum für Informatik in Karlsruhe, Germany) since 1992.
- He was appointed as a member of the supervisory board of GMD (= Forschungszentrum für Informatik in St.Augustin near Bonn, Germany) up to the take-over of GMD by FhG.
- He served as a member of the GI Praesidium, a board of the German Informatics Society, from 1991 until 1996.
- He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Klagenfurt University in Austria in 1995.
- He was appointed as a member of the Honorary Senates of Heidelberg University in 1996.
- In 1994, Klaus acquired the Villa Bosch as a home not for himself, but for the future foundation and its planned activities. In December 1995, the Klaus Tschira Foundation was established. In 1996, Klaus began discussions that finally lead up to the foundation of the European Media Lab in 1997.
Today, Klaus dedicates his time to the management of the Klaus Tschira Foundation (established in 1995) and the European Media Laboratory (established in 1997), acting as managing partner for both institutions. He also indulges in several outside activities.
- Klaus was member of the supervisory board of Lion Bioscience AG in Heidelberg from 1999 until end of 2002.
- He was appointed as a member of the Honorary Senates of Mannheim and Karlsruhe Universities in 1999.
- Klaus was awarded the Deutsche Stifterpreis 1999 by the Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen (National Association of German Foundations)
- In 2000, Klaus started the planning process to establish BioParc Dresden, an incubator for start-ups in BioInformatics. Unfortunately, this project had to be canceled in April 2002.
- Beginning in 1997, Klaus got more and more involved in the politics of establishing the privately organized 'International University in Germany' in Bruchsal. Klaus holds a seat on its international advisory board.
- Klaus is a founding member of the "Friends of the Eurotoques Institute of Culinary Arts", supporting the establishment of the said institute of higher education for chefs, restaurant managers etc.
- In 2001 Klaus was appointed to the supervisory board of SRH Learnlife AG, Heidelberg
- Klaus serves on several committees:
- ASB management center, Heidelberg
- Schwetzingen Festival
- KSL - KulturStiftung der Länder
- FH Technik und Gestaltung in Mannheim
- MPI-MIS Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, Leipzig
- MPI-K Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg
- MPI-PKS Physics of Complex Systems Dresden
- MPI-KYB Biological Cybernetics and MPI-EB Developmental Biology, Tuebingen
- Duojingyuan-Teehaus in Mannheim
- Recently, Klaus was invited to join
- In 2002 Klaus was appointed to the Senate of the Max-Planck Society for the advancement of Science
- the board of governors of the Center on Philanthropy at IUPUI, Indianapolis
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