Hasso Plattner celebrates his 80th birthday

When Hasso Plattner founded the company SAP with his companions in 1972, he didn't just want to build what already existed, he wanted to create something new and give something back to society.

He supports projects in sports, culture and social areas all over the world. He is particularly committed to science and founded the HPI in 1998. In 1999, the first students at HPI finally attended lectures and took seminars, marking the start of the institute as a place of teaching. This moment is not only special for the young people back then, up to this day it is still considered the starting point for an extraordinary story in the educational landscape. Plattner's vision: a computer science university to train young IT talents who are urgently needed internationally. In 2017, the HPI and the University of Potsdam finally jointly founded the first privately financed faculty in Germany.

The HPI has been considered a center of excellence for digital engineering for 25 years now. More than 1,500 alumni are employed in leading positions worldwide, and more than 200 start-ups have already emerged from the HPI. Plattner himself not only finances the institute, but also headed its own department “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts” (EPIC) with numerous doctoral students until 2023. But even after his active teaching and research work ends, his commitment to the institute does not stop: the HPI should continue to grow.

On January 21, 2024, Hasso Plattner will celebrate his 80th birthday. We warmly congratulate our founder and thank you for 25 years of HPI!