People in December 2022 / January 2023

SNP once again completes change of chief executive

Jens Amail will take over as the new CEO in January 2023. At the beginning of the year, Michael Eberhardt had expressed his wish to leave the company in the course of fiscal 2023 as part of long-term succession planning and a regulated transition. "The decision was not easy for me. But I also felt that it was time to hand over responsibility," said Michael Eberhardt. "I am very proud of what we have achieved together at SNP. The prudent planning that has taken place together with the Board of Directors has secured a succession and ensured a smooth transition. As a result, SNP is and will remain very well positioned in the market and will continue to grow in the future."

Effective January 16, 2023, the Board of Directors has appointed Jens Amail as Managing Director and new CEO of SNP. He is an internationally experienced manager in the software and services industry with in-depth transformation expertise in Europe, the US and Asia. Acting CEO Michael Eberhardt will support Jens Amail in his assumption of the CEO role and will remain with the company until the end of March 2023 for this purpose. Jens Amail joins the company from SAP, where he is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Greater China region. Jens Amail has been with SAP since 2008. In various management positions, he was responsible for the UK and Ireland region as Managing Director, Head of Cloud Business in EMEA and General Manager for Services Industries.

After turbulent times, SNP now has a new boss. Jens Amail brings a lot of experience from SAP.

Ferri Abolhassan is the new Chairman of the DFKI Supervisory Board

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI, at its meeting in Bremen in November Ferri Abolhassan, Deutsche Telekom AG, as his new Supervisory Board Chairman. "In this role, I look forward to trusting and constructive collaboration with my colleagues on the Supervisory Board and with DFKI's management. AI is already being used more and more in business. As Chairman of the DFKI Supervisory Board, I see it as my responsibility to support initiatives and concepts that transfer the results of DFKI research to industry even more quickly, so that they can unfold their great social benefits there," says Ferri Abolhassan.

As Head of Sales and Service at Telekom, he and his 30,000 employees deal with AI on a daily basis. "We use artificial intelligence where it actually helps people. If customers get even better service with the help of AI because employees can offer faster and even more individual solutions, then artificial intelligence is being used correctly and well." The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence was founded in 1988 as a non-profit organization.
Public-private partnership founded. It has sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen and Lower Saxony, and laboratories in Berlin and Darmstadt. DFKI combines scientific excellence and business-oriented value creation with social appreciation.

Ferri Abolhassan is a very successful veteran of the SAP community: in addition to his main role at Telekom, he now also works at DFKI.

Cenit Switzerland with new managing director

Change of leadership in the Cenit management: Roland Schneider has been the new CEO in Switzerland since November 2022. Together with the current CEO Peter Abt, he will lead the Swiss company headquartered in Effretikon until the end of 2022 and then succeed Peter Abt, who is retiring.

Peter Schneck, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cenit, commented on the change: "With Roland Schneider, we have gained an experienced colleague with an excellent network in Switzerland, who will drive our growth strategy in all business areas of Cenit Schweiz AG. Especially his experience in the area of mergers & acquisitions will advance the inorganic growth of our Swiss company." Switzerland is a challenge with its specific industrial landscape and many existing SAP customers.

Roland Schneider looks back on more than 30 years of experience as a financial analyst and CFO of internationally operating companies. Most recently, he was CFO of Romay in Oberkulm and before that held a leading position at the Canadian Constellation Group as well as at Bally and Schindler.

OpenText Security with new DACH team

OpenText Security invests in channel strategy in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Middle East. Sales Director DACH, Dieter Kehl, is expanding its sales management team, consisting of experts from the areas of sales, marketing and partner management. OpenText Security has reorganized its local Data Security and Data Management team in the first half of 2022 with a focus on the DACH region. This team has assumed responsibility for sales of Carbonite Data Management and Webroot Data Security solutions with a focus on the German-speaking regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland under the leadership of Dieter Kehl, Director Sales DACH/CEE/MEA. As part of the Carbonite 2019 acquisition, the security division continues to expand, particularly in the DACH region. At the beginning of this year, Dieter Kehl, who had previously worked for 20 years as an expert in software development and professional services at OpenText, among other things, was appointed as Director Sales at OpenText Security.

"Because the world of cyber threats never stands still, a strong cyber resilience strategy is an absolute must-have" 

Dieter Kehl, Sales Director DACH, OpenText Security

Tricentis wins Suhail Ansari as CTO

Tricentis appoints Suhail Ansari as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Effective immediately, Ansari is responsible for advancing Tricentis' global technology strategy and delivering high-quality products and platforms to Tricentis' customers and partners. "The rate at which applications are being developed and deployed by enterprises continues to increase, highlighting that innovation in Continuous Testing and Software Quality Engineering is business critical," Ansari explains. Suhail Ansari is an experienced specialist in technical management, product management, distributed systems and more. He joins Tricentis from McAfee. "I am impressed with the top-notch talent we have been able to attract to Tricentis recently. We are pleased to welcome Suhail Ansari to our leadership team," said Kevin Thompson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tricentis.

"I am delighted to now be part of the Tricentis team. The company's commitment and willingness to invest in this area is clearly evident here. I want to use my experience to drive innovation and future growth."

Suhail Ansari, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Tricentis