Personnel news November 2015
Michael Kleinemeier succeeds Gerd Oswald
Michael Kleinemeier is to become a new member of the SAP Executive Board. In the future, he will be solely responsible for Global Service & Support. In this role, he succeeds Gerhard Oswald, who will remain a member of the Executive Board and will in future be responsible for Product Quality & Enablement.
Kleinemeier had already been a member of the Global Managing Board since January 2015 and was Head of Global Service & Support. In 2013, he was appointed President of the Middle and Eastern Europe (MEE) region.
In this role, he was responsible for all market activities for the entire SAP product portfolio within the region. From 2010 to 2012, Kleinemeier was Head of Global End-to-End Services, during which time he also managed the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region. In 2007, he was appointed Head of Product for Industry Solutions and Corporate Officer.
Between 2001 and 2007, he was Managing Director of SAP Germany. During this time, he was also President of the then EMEA Central sales region (DACH and Benelux). From 1989 to 1999, he held leading positions in sales, consulting and training.
The newly created area of responsibility in Product Quality & Enablement takes account of the fact that ever shorter innovation and development cycles demand special attention to compliance with quality standards.
"I am particularly pleased that we have been able to recruit Michael Kleinemeier, a proven expert and longstanding employee, for this task."
said Supervisory Board Chairman Prof. Hasso Plattner.
Panaya signs Markus Schepp
Panaya, a provider of cloud solutions for the automation of ERP systems and Hana projects, has hired Markus Schepp as its new Vice President Sales and General Manager Central Europe. In this role, Schepp will be responsible for existing and new customer business as well as personnel and business development in Central Europe.
Markus Schepp brings over 20 years of management and sales experience in the software industry.
"We are delighted to have won Markus for our company".
says Doron Gerstel, CEO of Panaya.
"I am sure that with him at our side, we will be able to convince many more SAP and Oracle customers of the benefits of our Panaya Cloud Quality Suite."
Before joining Panaya, Schepp was VP Sales and General Manager Europe at Good Technology. Prior to that, he served as Vice President Sales at Software AG, overseeing its markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Schepp began his career in 1995 at Siemens Nixdorf.
This was followed by positions at Hyperion (Oracle) and Informatica, a provider of data integration and IT infrastructure services. Between 2008 and 2011, his path led him to the B2B pricing provider Zilliant, where he was responsible for the organization in Europe as Managing Director.
Markus Schepp has a degree from the Siemens Nixdorf Business Academy, Germany. Panaya was only acquired in March by the Indian software group Infosys, headed by ex-SAP Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka.
New tasks for Gerd Oswald
Gerd Oswald will head the Product Quality & Enablement unit at SAP in the future. Oswald has been with SAP since 1981 and a member of the SAP Executive Board since 1996. Immediately after joining SAP in 1981, Oswald played a key role in the development of the SAP R/2 sales network as head of quality assurance.
Under his leadership, Active Global Support has continued to improve with its global support infrastructure and innovative support offerings.
"In times of ever shorter product cycles, quality assurance is taking on a more important role. With Gerd Oswald, we have exactly the right man on board for this task."
says SAP founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner.
Peter Werzer as sole managing director of lbase
Peter Werzer is the new Managing Director of logistics software provider lbase Software in Cologne. lbase is the German subsidiary of Axians ICT Austria (formerly Imtech ICT), an Austrian IT provider with expertise and solutions in the SAP, retail and logistics sectors.
Werzer, who has been responsible for the transport logistics software business of Axians ICT Austria since June 2014, succeeds Robert Pöll. Pöll is concentrating even more on his role as CEO of Axians ICT Austria.
Werzer has many years of IT industry and management experience in leading positions. His career path led from a university degree at the Vienna University of Technology via an IBM sales career to building up his own company and selling it to Axians ICT Austria.
SAP is involved in the Industrial Internet Consortium
The Industrial Internet Consortium has elected Tanja Rueckert, Executive Vice President IoT & Customer Innovation Unit at SAP, as a member of its steering committee. The global public-private organization aims to accelerate the establishment of the Industrial Internet of Things.
"Our four-year commitment as a contributing member demonstrates that SAP fully recognizes the tremendous value the IIC brings to the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and our SAP Hana cloud platform for the IoT. That's why we look forward to the continued expansion of the IIC test bed, its technology and security-related activities, and our increased involvement in its work"
Rueckert explained after her election.
Reinforcement at SDS provider FalconStor
FalconStor Software, a provider of Software Defined Storage (SDS), has appointed Iris Hatzenbichler-Durchschlag as its new Director Marketing EMEA. She has worked in the IT industry for more than 15 years. Most recently, she led the EMEA marketing team at DataCore Software.
FalconStor has also strengthened its German sales team with the appointment of Siegfried Betke. In his new role, the experienced sales professional will be primarily responsible for new customer acquisition for FreeStor, the world's first truly horizontally converged data services platform.
Gerhard Kunkel, a long-time member of the Executive Board of Cormeta, an SAP partner with a focus on SMEs, moved to the Supervisory Board. In the future, the Cormeta board will be made up of the two board members Holger Behrens and Wolfgang Dörr.
Stefan Ropers will be the new head of Germany at Adobe Systems. Ropers was Microsoft General Manager for many years. Ropers joins Adobe to continue the dynamic transformation process in the Creative Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Document Cloud business units.
SAP appoints Lori Mitchell-Keller as executive vice president and global general manager for Consumer Industries. Her responsibilities include retail, wholesale distribution, consumer products and life sciences industries. Mitchell-Keller brings more than 25 years of experience in the software and consumer products industries.
Oliver Kempkens joins the German consulting team of executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates as Associate Director. He will focus primarily on digitalization and digital transformation. Previously, he was Global Lead Workspace Transformation and Lead Design Thinking Implementation at SAP.
Josef Brunner is expanding his involvement with Relayr and, as CEO, is taking over the development of the global business of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) as a service provider. Brunner previously served as founder and CEO of the AFT Group, which invests in promising start-ups and has supported Relayr from the beginning.
Jürgen Pürzer will be the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Atos Switzerland. Pürzer has been with the company for ten years in various positions. Most recently, he was responsible for the finances of Atos Austria as CFO. His predecessor, Xavier Suchel, is moving to the French sub-organization.
