He subsequently left the public sector to pursue a career in business, and in 1909 he was appointed chairman of the supervisory board of Krupp Steel, and built up a close personal and political relationship with Baron Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the CEO of Krupp AG. Krupp had been "in search of a man of really superior intelligence" to run the finance department of Krupp AG, and found that man in Hugenberg, with his "extraordinary" intelligence and work ethic. In 1902, Friedrich Alfred Krupp was outed and committed suicide or died from illness shortly after the Social Democratic newspaper "Vorwarts" published love letters he had written to his Italian male lovers. After his death, the entire firm of Krupp AG was left to his eldest daughter Bertha Krupp. As Krupp AG was one of the world's largest arms manufacturers, and the biggest supplier of weapons to the German state, the management of Krupp AG was of some interest to the state, and misogynistic Emperor Wilhelm II did not believe that a woman was capable of running a business. To solve this perceived problem, the Kaiser had Bertha marry a career diplomat, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, who was regarded by the Kaiser as a safe man to run Krupp AG. Gustav Krupp, as he was renamed by Wilhelm, knew little about running a business, however, and so depended very much on his board to assist him. Hugenberg's role in the management of Krupp AG was thus considerably larger than would be indicated by his title of director of finance; in many ways, he was the man who effectively ran the Krupp corporation during his ten years at the firm between 1908 and 1918.