Personnel news October 2018
The new head of SAP Austria is Christoph Kränkl
Christoph Kränkl has been the new Managing Director of SAP Austria since August 1 and is responsible for the entire Austrian business in this role. His predecessor Rudi Richter is making an international career leap in the software group and, as Managing Director from the Vienna location, is now in charge of the entire SAP region Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), into which SAP Austria is integrated.
The SAP region comprises a total of 16 countries, including Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Richter headed SAP's Austrian operations for two years.
Kränkl, who is from Vienna, has worked at SAP Austria since 2013. As a member of the management team, he served as Sales Director Core Enterprise. This area covers the top 100 customers in manufacturing, telecommunications, utilities and media.
He successfully led this sector, which is important for SAP, with a focus on digital transformation at top Austrian customers. After studying economics in Vienna, Kränkl started his career in 1991 at Siemens Nixdorf in the sales department.
After more than ten successful years in various positions, he joined the investment firm Stage1.cc Technology Business Incubator. From 2002 to 2005, he was Director Sales at T-Systems Austria. For the last seven years before joining SAP, he worked as Sales Manager at Microsoft Austria, where he headed the Large Enterprise division.
New Head of Channel and SME at SAP Switzerland
SAP Switzerland has appointed Simon Hammer as Head of Global Partner Organization (GPO) SAP Switzerland with immediate effect. He heads the business unit responsible for partners and SMEs and, in this role, sits on the Executive Board.
This means that the interests of partners and SMEs are also represented on the Executive Board. Simon Hammer succeeds Pascal Strnad, who is taking on a new management role in the SAP Central and Eastern Europe (MEE) region.
Hammer entered sales two decades ago after training as a federally certified sales manager, initially in the publishing and publishing industry, and from 2002 in the software industry. After initial years in the database and web shop market, he moved to StepStone Solutions.
He started at SuccessFactors at the end of 2010 and joined SAP Switzerland through its acquisition in 2013. At both companies, as Key Account Manager and later Global Strategic Account Manager, he earned a reputation as an outstanding salesman and customer service representative.
In 2015, he took over the management of the cloud business at SAP Switzerland. In his new role, Hammer has made it his mission to drive digital transformation and the evolution to the smart enterprise with the help of SAP technologies together with partners in the SME segment.
By joining the Executive Board, the partners and SME customers will have a direct representation of their interests in the management body of SAP Switzerland.
Change in the management of EPlan and Cideon
On August 1, 2018, Sebastian Seitz took over as CEO of EPlan and Cideon. Seitz has been with the Friedhelm Loh Group since 2013, most recently as COO of the leading engineering software company (EPlan) and the SAP development partner and Autodesk reseller (Cideon).
The physics engineer had led Cideon Systems as Managing Director since 2006, before which he held various consulting positions within the BMW Group and KPMG.
"His high level of market knowledge, strategic vision and deep understanding of future strategic business models in the software sector are an important prerequisite for the further development of Cideon and EPlan"
says Karl-Ulrich Köhler, CEO Rittal International, on Seitz's appointment.
Köhler thanks Maximilian Brandl, who has left the company, for his high level of personal commitment and successful work in recent years. Under his leadership, he said, the company had succeeded in significantly increasing sales and considerably expanding strategic partnerships with software and automation providers.
Rupert Lehner becomes head of DACH at Fujitsu
Rupert Lehner has been appointed the new Head of Fujitsu Central Europe, with immediate responsibility for the company's business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He succeeds Rolf Werner, who has decided to leave the company.
As Senior Vice President, Lehner also leads Fujitsu's mainframe activities and product business in the EMEIA region (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) and has been a member of the Management Board of Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH since 2013.
Since joining in 1990, he has successfully held a variety of responsible roles at Siemens, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Fujitsu.
"I look forward to continuing to successfully shape the digital transformation at our customers together with our employees and partners. With our comprehensive portfolio and strong expertise, Fujitsu is an ideal partner for companies of all sizes and industries. On behalf of the entire management team, I would like to thank Rolf Werner for his successful work over the past years, especially in the area of Industry 4.0".
says Lehner.
Orbis expands the management board
Saarbrücken-based software and business consulting company Orbis has appointed Michael Jung (l.) and Frank Schmelzer (r.) as two additional members of the Executive Board, effective October 1, 2018.
Both began their careers at Orbis after graduating in business administration and have held various management positions at the company for more than 30 years. Jung will in future be responsible for the Microsoft business division as a member of the Management Board, while Schmelzer will be responsible for the SAP business division as a member of the Management Board.
The Supervisory Board of Orbis has also appointed Thomas Gard as Chairman of the Management Board and Stefan Mailänder as Deputy Chairman. Gard will in future be in charge of the Market and Strategy department, while Mailänder will continue as Chief Financial Officer.
With the expansion of the Executive Board, Orbis wants to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in the market through the realization of digital processes - from customer engagement to the digital factory to the digital company - at the customers.
Correction: In the September issue, we published a personnel announcement in the HR section on page 63 regarding the generation change at WMD. An error crept in at the end of the article. The last sentence does not refer to new activities of the WMD management.
Micro Focus has appointed Alexander Neff as its new head of the DACH region. He succeeds Angelika Gifford, who is leaving Micro Focus. Neff's previous roles include Managing Director at Quest Software and Head of Germany at computer accessories manufacturer Logitech.
Cyber security provider SecureLink has appointed Matthias Rosche as General Manager Germany. He takes over this role from Andreas Mertz, who founded SecureLink Germany. Prior to SecureLink, Rosche worked at T-Systems International and NTT Com Security/Integralis, among others.
Denisa Köhler and Stratos Komotoglou are now responsible for Compliance & DSGVO and Security at Microsoft Germany. As Business Lead for Compliance, Köhler is responsible for information protection and compliance products, among other things.
BloomReach, a provider of a digital experience platform, has expanded its leadership team: David Hurwitz is to drive the company's marketing and sales development as its new chief marketing officer (CMO). Dave Pomeroy will be the new CFO.
Chris Baker joins cloud content management provider Box as SVP and general manager for EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) on its executive team. Baker joins from SAP Concur, where he served as Managing Director for nearly four years.
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