Klaus Becker

Klaus Becker was born in Marburg, Germany in 1953 and grew up in Dortmund, where his father worked as a technician in a steel production company. He graduated from an apprenticeship program as merchant of foreign trade. Traineeships took him to Italy, Brazil, and the US.[1] Later, he studied business administration and national economics and received a master’s degree from the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum.[2]

Since 1979, Becker has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, working in the international steel trade.[2] In 1991, Becker founded SouthStar Steel Cooperation[3] which became the largest importer of stainless-steel bars in the US within five years.[4][5] It was the fastest growing privately held company in the Southern Piedmont three years in a row,[6] and was 21st in Inc. Magazine's "The Inner City 100".[7] With warehouses in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Houston, the company created new supply lines and distributed stainless steel bars from Spanish, Korean, Brazilian and Italian manufacturers.[8]

Currently, Becker owns Nirosteel LLC, an international steel trading company based in Charlotte. Nirosteel imports steel and steel related products into the US, Mexico and several European countries.[9]

Becker was voted Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in North Carolina in 1996,[10] and by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in 1998.[11] Additionally, he has served as president of the N.C. Chapter of the German-American Chamber of Commerce for seven years, from 2004 to 2011.[12]

Klaus Becker has been married to Concha Becker since 1983. They have a daughter, Fiorella.[13]

In 2013, Klaus Becker was appointed as honorary consul of the Federal Republic of Germany for North Carolina.[14] In this function, he founded the N.C. Zeitgeist Foundation. The goal of the Foundation is to inform about German culture, industry, politics, as well as history.[15] The foundation has promoted Charlotte as a US location for international business, trade, and investment,[16] and Becker continues to engage German and American businesses.[17] He was instrumental in bringing the soccer clubs FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund to Charlotte to play against foreign teams in the International Champions Cup tournament in 2016.[18]