Personnel news November 2017
Michael Locher-Tjoa is the new COO of SAP Switzerland
Michael Locher-Tjoa has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SAP Switzerland with immediate effect.
He thus joins the Executive Board of SAP Switzerland and succeeds José Velázquez, who is taking on a new professional challenge outside SAP.
Many years of management experience and a strong track record in the IT industry characterize Michael Locher-Tjoa's career.
After internships at Hewlett-Packard in Germany, he joined IBM Germany in 1997 as an automotive sales representative, where he was quickly promoted to team leader.
From 2000, he held various management positions in sales in Germany, later also for the DACH region. In 2006, he moved to the Software Group of IBM Germany, and in 2010 he was promoted to Director of Sales for the business customer segment in Germany.
Locher-Tjoa has been putting his skills to work for SAP Germany since 2013, first as Head of Automotive Sales for the automotive supply industry, and since 2016 as Head of Services Sales PC&S (Process, Consumer Goods and Services Industries).
After his apprenticeship as a skilled worker at Mercedes-Benz, Michael Locher-Tjoa studied process engineering in Frankfurt am Main and then business administration in Pforzheim.
Parallel to his tasks in the IT industry, he has continuously trained himself in sales, management and leadership issues.
Innobis expands shareholder base
The founder and main shareholder of Innobis, Michael Grötsch, transferred his shares in the company in August 2017.
These are now in the hands of eight specialists and managers, including Jörg Petersen, a member of the Innobis Executive Board since 2006 and the future main shareholder. They are jointly assuming responsibility for the company.
All partners have been loyal to the SAP consulting company for well over ten years and are SAP experts with profound technical and banking know-how.
Founded in December 1990 in Hamburg, the company has been active in IT and SAP consulting for banks and other financial service providers for over 25 years. Company founder Michael Grötsch withdrew from operational business in 2000.
At that time, he established Circle Unlimited, a solution provider of SAP system-integrated document, contract and license management, as a spin-off and has since chaired it as a board member.
He still accompanies Innobis today as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and is an important link between the two companies (Innobis Group).
"More than 25 years in the market have shown how important it is to be a specialist in banking IT and the SAP environment in order to responsibly manage the complexity of the systems. The current management team will stick to this strategy and also continue to innovate, develop and expand Innobis."
comments Jörg Petersen on the new set-up.
Harald Lothspeich heads Abat site in Munich
The Bremen-based SAP service provider Abat is strengthening its Munich location: With immediate effect, Harald Lothspeich is taking over as site manager for Bavaria. Abat is thus continuing its expansion course and strengthening its presence in southern Germany.
In order to be able to serve individual customer requirements even better in southern Germany, Abat is strengthening its Munich site with Harald Lothspeich as the new site manager.
He looks back on 25 years of professional experience in the IT and automotive industry and worked as a service provider for well-known automotive manufacturers such as Audi, BMW and MAN.
At Sulzer GmbH, he built up the SAP division from 2003 to 2007. Most recently, as Managing Director of Sulzer, a full-service provider for process and IT consulting, he was responsible for the expansion of the automotive business and the establishment of subsidiaries throughout Germany.
He also built up the SAP business unit there. "With Harald Lothspeich, we were able to gain a very experienced IT and automotive expert for our Munich location," explains Holger Pralle, member of the Abat Board of Management.
Konrad Hötschl heads the JIS division at Nemetris
Konrad Hötschl has moved from automotive supplier Leoni-Bordnetz-Systeme to Nemetris - a specialist for just-in-sequence software (JIS) and digitization in industry.
He will head the JIS business unit. Nemetris offers suppliers in the automotive industry a modular JIS system that is extremely closely linked to production.
The software is used by internationally operating automotive suppliers at locations all over the world and, thanks to predefined interfaces and reference models for process integration, offers a connection to SAP ERP or other ERP systems.
Hötschl is an experienced JIS specialist and has held various management positions over the past 20 years. For example, he was head of the JIT/JIS systems department at WSW Software, which specializes in logistics systems and where he was employed from 1998 to 2014.
From 2014 until his move to Nemetris, he worked for Leoni Wiring Systems as an SAP JIT consultant and project manager, primarily responsible for implementation projects in China.
Materna appoints Sales Director Defense
Frank Grotheer joined IT consultancy Materna on September 1 as Sales Director Defense, responsible for the cross-divisional expansion and further development of projects with the German Armed Forces.
With a degree in business administration, he has more than twenty years of experience in IT sales in the public sector. After working for the medium-sized company Datus and Debis Systemhaus, he took over the technical and personnel management for all projects of the German Armed Forces at Microsoft for almost 18 years.
"Bundeswehr projects will be another pillar in our portfolio in the future. With Frank Grotheer, we have been able to win over a proven Bundeswehr and public sector expert.
says Helmut Binder, CEO, Materna.
"Materna is very well positioned in the IT services sector to support the Bundeswehr in its IT tasks. Many of Materna's solutions can also be used efficiently by the Bundeswehr. Implementing these together with partners in the IT environment will be one of my main focuses."
Grotheer explains.
Materna generates a good quarter of its sales with customers from the public sector.
Erwin Böttinger, previously CEO of the Berlin Institute of Health, has moved to the joint digital engineering faculty of the University of Potsdam and the Hasso Plattner Institute. As a specialist in digital health, Professor Böttinger is to set up the new department and design a degree program.
At the beginning of January, Peter Lenz will take over as CEO of T-Systems in Austria and become Managing Director of the company. Lenz has already been working for T-Systems since the beginning of the year as Vice President Delivery. Franz Grohs ends his operational career after 21 years at T-Systems.
Marketo, a provider of engagement marketing software, has appointed Jamie Anderson as its new president of EMEA. Anderson was previously
worked for SAP for eleven years, among others. Most recently, he was senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Hybris. He reports to Chief Sales Officer Eric Johnson.
Dematic, a global provider of integrated automated supply chain technology, software and services, has announced Jan Vercammen as the new managing director of Dematic Central Europe. In this role, he succeeds Barbara Wladarz with immediate effect.
Sauce Labs, a provider of automated test platforms, wants to increase its involvement in the German market. Hannes Lenke was recently appointed as the new General Manager for the EMEA region. Now the company is also moving into its new location in Berlin.
Andre Kiehne takes on the role of Segment Lead Specialist Sales at Microsoft Germany. The organization was newly created to support customers in their digital transformation. Kiehne comes from IT service provider Dimension Data.
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