Ruediger Grube has been CEO of Deutsche Bahn since May 2009, when he was appointed to the position, as well as to the management boards of both Deutsche Bahn and DB Mobility Logistics, at the age of 57. Nearly three years later he is still in the same position, overseeing, among other things, economic policy, transport policy, and corporate regulation of Deutsche Bahn, as part of his duties.

Grube has a substantial history in the management of companies in and related to the transport business. In the years immediately prior to his appointment at Deutsche Bahn, he was working on the management board at Daimler, where he also had a number of other high profile responsibilities. These included areas such as corporate strategy and development, and mergers and acquisitions. He acquired a number of years of experience at Daimler, including more than four years of managing business activities in the region of north-east Asia, including China.

Grube’s career in the transport industry took off following successful studies and training in automotive engineering and aircraft construction, which he undertook at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and later in business teaching, at the University of Hamburg. Initially he remained at the University of Hamburg in a teaching capacity, lecturing in production and engineering, until completing his doctoral degree in industrial science and polytechnology.

Following the successful completion of his doctorate, Grube built on experience gained in his own business as a consultant in the field of new technologies, by taking up a position at Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), which had been among his clients.  At MBB, he led the marketing, sales, and international relations activities in the area of energy and industrial technology, and he remained in this position for a year, before moving on to Deutsche Airbus, where he was appointed head of the management office.

Grube remained in the aerospace industry until 1996, occupying a number of managerial positions with different companies.  After his time at Deutsche Airbus, these positions were mainly at Daimler-Benz Aerospace, where he served as head the site at Ottobrunn, then head of aviation staff, with particular responsibility for the Airbus and military aircraft, in Munich, and later as director in charge of corporate planning and technology.

This experience within Daimler-Benz Aerospace meant that, by 1996, he was in a good position to take up an appointment as Senior Vice President, and also Head of Corporate Strategy, at Daimler-Benz AG.  In 1998, he retained these two positions at DaimlerChrysler AG after being central to the merger with Chrysler, and he became Senior Vice President for Corporate Development in the year 2000.  A further change followed at DaimlerChrysler, when he was appointed a deputy member of the board of management in 2001, and he remained at the company until his move to Deutsche Bahn, eight years later, in 2009.