Michael Kleiner was born on 14 January 1967 in Aalen and grew up in Ellwangen. After military service, Law studies at the Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen and a traineeship at the district court of Tübingen, he passed his Second State Law Examination in 1995.
From 1995 to 2000, Kleiner worked at the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg of Science, Research and the Arts, firstly as a speaker and from 1998 as head of the central agency. In 2000 he moved to the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, where he assumed various roles as head of division and, from 2009, as head of department. In April 2013, he returned to the Ministry of Science as head of the research department. On August 2016, he took over the management of the policy department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
Since 1 October 2017, Michael Kleiner has been Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
Michael Kleiner is married and has two children.