German businesswoman Susanne Klatten has an estimated net worth of $19 billion in June 2019. She is the fourth richest person in Germany.

Klatten's fortune grew significantly after she inherited a 12.6% stake in BMW from her late father, Herbert Quandt. Quandt rescued the company from bankruptcy several decades prior. Along with her brother Stefan Quandt and mother Johanna Quandt, who are both billionaires, they own almost 50% of BMW which, despite weakness in Europe, continued to grow because of increasing sales in the U.S. and China.

A trained economist, Susanne also controls chemical manufacturer Altana, and holds stakes in wind power outfit, Nordex AG as well as carbon and graphite producer SGL and Geohumus. The latter focuses on developing a water storing granulate to be used in agriculture.

In 2012, she bought stakes from Dutch biotech company Paques and used oil recycling company Avista Oil of Germany.

Born Susanne Hanna Ursula Quandt on April 28, 1962 in Bad Homburg, Germany, she has a degree in business finance. She began her professional career in an advertising agency Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt between 1981 and 1983. She later attended the University of Buckingham for a marketing and management course, and then got an MBA from International Institute for Management and Development in Lausanne where she specialized in advertising. She also worked in London with Dresdner Bank, the Munich branch of management consultants McKinsey and the bank Reuschel & Co.

In 2009, Klatten won a civil case against Helg Sgarbi, an ex-lover who tried to blackmail her for millions. He was sent to jail for six years for fraud and attempted extortion.