Business speaker Dr. Dieter Zetsche worked at Daimler from 1998 until his resignation in 2019. During that same year, he also left his position as Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Division, where he served for Maybach and Mercedes-Benz. Furthermore, he worked for Smart, Mercedes-Benz McLaren, and Mercedes-Benz AMG.

Dr. Zetsche was born in Turkey but had his education in Germany, where he studied electrical engineering. He obtained his engineering degree from the University of Karlsruhe. In 1976, he began working for Daimler-Benz AG, where he assisted the Development Manager in the Commercial Vehicles business.

Speaker Dr. Dieter Zetsche continued to study to obtain a doctorate in engineering from the University of Paderborn. In 1984 he became an international development activities coordinator at Daimler-Benz.

Zetsche is well-known for bringing about positive changes at Mercedes-Benz, which was experiencing a number of problems at the time, including low customer satisfaction and poor product quality. In 2006, Time Magazine named Zetsche as one of the 100 most influential people. 

In 2019, Dieter Zetsche left his positions as the Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Board of Management of Daimler AG. Moreover, he joined TUI Group as their Chair of the Supervisory Board. In addition, he is part of the Aldi Süd Advisory Board.