Wolfgang Leitner Net Worth

Wolfgang Leitner has an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Wolfgang Leitner profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $1.7 billion in 2019.

Wolfgang Leitner is an Austrian businessman who turned plant and equipment maker Andritz into one of Austria's largest companies. He was born on March 27, 1953, in Graz, where he still lives with his wife and two children. He comes from a modest background. His father worked at Andritz as a metal worker for three decades.

Leitner trained as a chemist and received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Graz in 1978. He worked in research at Vianova, an Austrian subsidiary of Hoechst, and then joined McKinsey as a management consultant in 1981. He is known for his simple habits. Most days his lunch is a sandwich, an apple, a yogurt and the business section of the newspaper.

His honors include being named Man of the Year by Austrian business magazine Trend in 2006 and becoming an honorary senator of the Graz University of Technology in 2015.

How Wolfgang Leitner made his money

Leitner's first fortune came from pharmaceuticals. In 1986 he cofounded Genericon Pharma with his former classmate Martin Bartenstein, who later became a government minister. Its Hungarian unit Pharmavit had great success with effervescent tablets and generic drugs, and it was sold to Bristol Myers Squibb for $110 million in 1995.

He joined Andritz as chief financial officer in 1987 and became CEO in 1994. When the company was sold in 1999 he took a 26% stake. Under his leadership Andritz grew into a global supplier of industrial plants, and in 2018 it bought North Carolina based Xerium Technologies for $833 million, its biggest deal ever. In July 2021 he said he would step down as CEO, and he moved to the supervisory board in 2022.

His rise from the son of an Andritz metal worker to the company's leader and a major shareholder is one of Austria's best known business stories.

How Forbes has valued Wolfgang Leitner

Forbes valued Leitner at $1.7 billion in 2019 and $1.2 billion in 2020, then $1.8 billion in both 2021 and 2022. His figure rose to $2.5 billion in 2023, $2.7 billion in 2024 and $2.8 billion in 2025.

On the 2026 World's Billionaires List Forbes put him at $3.8 billion, and as of October 20, 2026, the real-time billionaires tracker showed $3.9 billion, his highest figure yet. The steady climb follows the rising value of his Andritz shares.