Clemens Tönnies

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Clemens Tönnies (born 27 May 1956) is a German businessman and billionaire who owns 45% of the meat processing company Tönnies Holding. In 2022 Forbes estimated his wealth at 1.6 billion dollars. He was chairman of the supervisory board of the football club FC Schalke 04 from 2001 to 2020.

He was born in Rheda, West Germany, the son of butcher Klemens Tönnies and Maria, and grew up with six siblings. He took over the family business in 1994 after his brother Bernd died of a lung infection following a heart attack.

Controversies:
- In 2012 German tax investigators searched his office for suspected tax evasion.
- In 2013 the Federal Cartel Office fined him 90,000 euros for omitting his shares in the Zur Mühlen Group when trying to merge with another slaughterhouse company; the missing shares were a main reason the merger was blocked.
- He used CumEx schemes to obtain refunds for taxes he hadn’t paid.
- His subsidiaries Böklunder, Plumrose and Karl Könecke Fleischwarenfabrik were fined 128 million euros for price fixing, but the fines could not be collected because he moved the activities to the Zur Mühlen Group and then liquidated the subsidiaries. Germany later closed this loophole in 2016.

COVID-19 and protests:
- In June 2020 mass testing at his main plant showed about 1,500 of 7,000 workers were infected with the coronavirus.
- On 18 June 2020, protests occurred outside his home due to infection fears and school closures.
- He sued a TV crew over coverage; the program Akte did an episode about how he deals with critics.
- In August 2019 he made controversial remarks about climate taxes, suggesting that German minister Gerd Müller should fund power plants in Africa; the remark was criticized as racist.

Resignation:
- In June 2020 Schalke fans demanded his resignation; he stepped down as chairman on 30 June 2020.