Curt Engelhorn

Education

Engelhorn graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Career

For more than three and a half decades, Engelhorn led the pharmaceutical companies Boehringer Mannheim and DePuy Inc. In 1997 he sold the two firms (in which together he had a 40% stake) to Hoffmann-La Roche for more than $10 billion.

In 2008 it was announced that Engelhorn would be donating Euro 400,000 annually over the period of 10 years to support American studies at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies.

Until 2012, Engelhorn owned Five Star Island, Bermuda a major share holding in a Bermuda registered German pharmaceutical multinational Corange Ltd.

Since late 2013, there have been ongoing investigations by the German authorities concerning suspected tax frauds between Engelhorn and his daughters, avoiding capital transfer taxes of up to Euro 440 million (US$475 million). As of January 2016, the family's lawyers conceded capital transfer tax evasions in the amount of Euro 135 million (US $145 million) to the court.

Personal life

Engelhorn is the great-grandson of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of the German chemical company BASF. He was married with five children and lived in Gstaad, Switzerland, with other homes in Costa Brava, Spain and on the Cote d'Azur, France. Aside from his involvement in the family business, Engelhorn supported the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim.

As of June 2015, according to Forbes, Engelhorn had a net worth of $6.2 billion. He died on 13 October 2016, aged 90.