Walther Andreas Jacobs (born 27 October 1963) is a German businessman, private equity investor and heir to

Jacobs Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations *Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK * Jacobs (coffee), a German brand of coffee * Jacobs Solutions, an American international technical professi ...

. His father was Klaus J. Jacobs, who was an equestrian and controlling shareholder of the company. He is chairman and a board member for business school

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

and several companies, which include

Dr. Oetker Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, Pizza#Preparation, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, birthday candles, beer, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned b ...

and

Louis Dreyfus Company Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC) is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, develops and operates telecommunications i ...

Early life and education

Jacobs was born in October 1963 in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, West Germany to Klaus J. Jacobs. He and his elder brother Christian (born 1962) were the oldest sons of Klaus J. Jacobs through his first marriage. His father was the main heir and controlling shareholder of

, which was founded in 1895 by Johann Jacobs. Their parents divorced in 1973 and their father remarried to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

-born now-philanthropist Renata Jacobs, which resulted in four half-siblings: Lavinia (born 1980), Nicolas (born 1982), Philippe (born 1984) and Nathalie (born 1985). He studied law at the Universities of Freiburg im Breisgau,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

. Subsequently, Jacobs obtained a

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

. Afterwards he obtained an MBA from

Fontainebleau, France Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissem ...

Career

From 1991, Jacobs worked three years as a consultant and project manager at

The Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the " Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

in Munich. Since 1992, Andreas Jacobs has been an independent entrepreneur with a stake in several companies plus minority interests in several other companies. Since 2000, Jacobs has been responsible for the family business in Switzerland. As from 2003, he was on the board of

Barry Callebaut Barry Callebaut AG is a Swiss-Belgian cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer. It was created in 1996 through the merging of the French company Cacao Barry and the Belgian chocolate producer Callebaut and is currently based in Zürich, Swi ...

AG, where he was chairman from 2005 to 2016. He was executive chairman of Jacobs Holding AG, an active private equity investor, from 2004 to 2015 and a member of the board until 2019. In April 2015, he stepped down from his functions at Adecco SA, where he had been a member of the board since May 2006, chairman of the nomination & compensation committee since May 2008 and as vice-chairman of the board since January 2012. Furthermore, he was chairman of Infront Sports & Media AG (until 2011), and chairman of Brach's Inc. (from 2000 until 2004). Jacobs is chairman of

, Minibar AG and Röwer & Rüb GmbH. Furthermore, he is CEO of Niantic Holding GmbH, a member of the advisory board of August Oetker KG, member of the board of Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings, member of the board of Hoist Group Holding Intressenter AB, and member of the board of directors of various small private companies. In 2015, he was co-founder and investor of GENUI Partners, an investment company based in Germany, where he advises several investments. In 2020, Andreas joined the board of directors o
Hoist Group
– provider of the widest range of hospitality technology. The Jacobs family, one of the wealthiest German families, reached an estimated net worth of CHF 8.5 billion ($ 8.8 billion) in 2016 (largely incorporated in the endowded Jacobs Foundation, the 1st wealthiest Swiss

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

and 27th wealthiest charitable foundation in the world in 2020), and over

EUR The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 10 ...

4 billion ($4.7 billion) in 2021, via its family's investment company, the Jacobs Holding.

Personal life

Jacobs is married to Natalie Gräfin zu

Stolberg-Wernigerode The County of Stolberg-Wernigerode () was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the Harz region around Wernigerode, now part of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was ruled by a branch of the House of Stolberg. History The Counts of Wernigerode h ...

. They have four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Andreas 1963 births INSEAD alumni Boston Consulting Group people Chocolatiers Living people Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Freiburg alumni People from Bremen (city)