D ietmar Hopp is a German self-made billionaire and one of the five co-founders of SAP, the world's leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. In 1972, he and four other former IBM engineers left the company to start their own venture with the vision of creating standardized software that could process data in real-time for businesses. This was a revolutionary concept at the time.

SAP's software became the global standard for managing business operations, from accounting and logistics to human resources, making it one of the largest and most successful technology companies in Europe. Hopp retired from his executive roles at SAP but retained a significant stake that formed the basis of his massive fortune. He is now one of Germany's most prominent philanthropists, having transferred the majority of his SAP shares to his charitable foundation, the Dietmar Hopp Stiftung, which supports a wide range of projects in sports, medicine, education, and social causes. He is also the majority owner and patron of the German Bundesliga soccer club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.