Author & Co-Founder
Klaus Straub
Co-Founder & CEO, xelerate.tech
Former CIO BMW Group, Audi & Siemens VDO | Supervisory Board Member of Bechtle AG and Welthungerhilfe
I help companies build, operate and ultimately own high-performing in-house technology teams, drawing on three decades of IT leadership in the automotive industry.
From automotive CIO to building technology hubs in Portugal
Klaus Straub is co-founder and CEO of xelerate.tech and founder and CEO of exadit GmbH. He is a mechanical engineer by training and has spent more than 30 years in technology and IT leadership at international companies, including Daimler-Benz, Siemens VDO, Audi and BMW Group.
As CIO of BMW Group, he led large-scale digital and organizational transformations and built high-performing in-house technology organizations. Earlier, as CIO of Audi including Lamborghini, he was a member of the top management circle and was named CIO of the Year.
Since 2020 he has put that executive experience behind an entrepreneurial idea: helping companies build, operate and transfer their own technology hubs in Portugal through the Build-Operate-Transfer model. Since 2023 he has also served on the Supervisory Board of Bechtle AG and, since November 2024, volunteers on the Board of Directors of Welthungerhilfe, the German non-profit fighting hunger and poverty.
Experience in numbers
- 30+
- years of technology and IT leadership
- 16
- years as CIO at Siemens VDO, Audi and BMW Group
- 3
- automotive groups led as CIO
- 2
- board mandates: Bechtle AG and Welthungerhilfe
Strategy, transformation, organization and technology, thought together
Enterprise IT strategy
Aligning IT with business strategy for global manufacturing groups, from production systems to enterprise-wide platforms.
Agile transformation at scale
Introducing agile ways of working across an entire IT organization at BMW Group.
In-house software development
Raising the share of software built by a company’s own teams instead of depending on external providers.
Organizational development
Designing operating models and organizations, as head of organizational development and strategy at BMW.
Build-Operate-Transfer
Building nearshore technology hubs that the client takes over once they are stable and self-sufficient.
Governance and supervision
Board experience at a leading European IT provider and at Welthungerhilfe, including nomination and finance committee work.
Technical depth meets executive responsibility
Klaus started his career in 1990 at Daimler-Benz, working on process integration and IT for passenger car production, before taking on CIO responsibility at Siemens VDO, Audi and BMW.
Career at a glance
Since 10/2020
CEO & Co-Founder
xelerate.tech
Build-Operate-Transfer technology hubs in Portugal for international companies.
Since 10/2020
CEO & Founder
exadit GmbH
08/2014 – 09/2020
CIO & Senior Vice President BMW Group IT
BMW AG
Responsible for the IT of the BMW Group, including its agile transformation.
04/2012 – 07/2014
Senior Vice President Organizational Development & Strategy
BMW AG
10/2004 – 03/2012
CIO & Corporate Vice President
Audi AG (incl. Lamborghini)
Member of the Top Management Circle.
01/2002 – 09/2004
CIO & Corporate Vice President
Siemens VDO Automotive AG
1990 – 2001
Various IT leadership roles
Daimler-Benz / DaimlerChrysler AG
Process integration, IT management for Mercedes-Benz passenger car production sites and Global HR Systems.
Education, awards and mandates
Education
Mechanical Engineering (Diplom)
University of Karlsruhe (today KIT), 1984 – 1990
Specialization in manufacturing and production engineering
Awards & recognition
CIO Hall of Fame (lifetime achievement) (2026)
CIO editorial team, one of 25 IT leaders honored for 25 years of CIO
CIO of the Year – Innovation Award (2018)
Computerwoche and CIO Magazin, for the agile transformation of BMW Group IT
IT Hall of Fame (2014)
Computerwoche
CIO of the Decade (2001 – 2011) (2011)
CIO Magazin
CIO of the Year (2006)
Awarded while CIO of Audi
Board mandates
Member of the Supervisory Board
Bechtle AG, since 25 May 2023
Member of the nomination committee.
Member of the Board of Directors (voluntary)
Welthungerhilfe, since November 2024
Member of the finance committee since 2021.
In the press and on stage
A selection of articles, interviews and talks on Klaus’s work. These are only some of the many pieces published about him over the years.
Talk & interview · Aimtec Insights ·
Klaus Straub: Key factors of digital transformation at TAL2023 Conference
Lecture “Digital Transformation in a Changing World” and a video interview on how CIOs can make companies more resilient.
Award report · CIO.de · · DE
CIO des Jahres 2018 – Innovation Award: BMW verliert keine Zeit und agiert agil
How Klaus reorganized BMW Group IT to be consistently agile and closely integrated with the business, on the occasion of the CIO of the Year Innovation Award.
Talk report · CIO.de · · DE
IT-Strategietage 2018: So geht Agile bei BMW
Report on his talk about BMW’s “100 percent agile” approach.
Article · CIO.de · · DE
Radikale Kehrtwende: BMW-CIO hält Bimodal IT für einen Irrweg
Why Klaus gave up the idea of a bimodal IT and moved all BMW projects to “100 percent agile”.
Talk report · CIO.de · · DE
Hamburger IT-Strategietage 2015: Die IT-Strategie von BMW
Report on his keynote about the BMW Group IT strategy.
Why classic outsourcing is no longer enough
“The AI race won’t be won by outsourcing. It will be won by a stable, highly skilled team of our own.”
In his roles as CIO, Klaus saw first-hand where classic outsourcing fails: dependency on external providers, lost know-how and little control over quality and speed.
xelerate.tech is his answer to that experience. As an end-to-end technology partner, it earns not from dependency but from transfer, building teams that eventually belong to the client.
Talk to Klaus about your own technology hub
Whether you are planning a nearshore team in Portugal or rethinking your outsourcing model, we start with a conversation about your goals.