Claus studied mining engineering at RWTH Aachen University, the Ecole des Mines de Paris, and TU Berlin. After his initial years as an engineer in France, he moved into international sales of capital goods, where he served for eight years as a member of the management board. He was also a co-founder of Circulania, a value creation platform for secondary raw materials. Since 2018, he has worked as a management and HR consultant, specializing in recruiting technical and sales professionals for hidden champions in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Benelux, and France.