Léo Apotheker describes himself as a "citizen of the world". Born in 1953, the son of Jewish parents who fled their home on the Polish-Ukrainian border to escape the Nazis in 1942, Mr Apotheker spent his formative years in Germany, Belgium and Israel before finally settling in Paris, where he still lives.

He is co-chief executive of Germany's SAP enterprise software group, a role he will share with Henning Kagermann until Mr Kagermann retires in May. When he takes over, he will be only the third boss of the software giant since it was founded in 1972 and, as someone who has spent most of his working life in sales, its first non-techie leader.