SAP announced that it would make some organizational changes to its executive board.
These organizational changes include:
- Sales, service and related customer success organizations will be bundled in the customer success board area managed by Adaire Fox-Martin.
- Product management, development and product support will also come together under one board area led by Thomas Saueressig.
- Juergen Mueller will be responsible for delivering one seamlessly integrated data management solution in addition to managing SAP’s overall platform and technology development as well as intelligent technologies. Saueressig and Mueller’s board areas will continue to work closely together.
As part of these changes, most former SAP Digital Business Services organization teams will be fully integrated in Fox-Martin and Saueressig’s board areas. With the exception of Qualtrics, CX Engineering, CX Product Strategy, and major parts of Concur, all Cloud Business Group board teams will also be integrated into the new organizational model.
To deliver both best of breed and best of suite, SAP is establishing six primary solution areas: SAP Customer Experience, S/4 Hana, People (SuccessFactors), Intelligent Spend (inclusive of Ariba, Fieldglass, and Concur), Hana and analytics, and Qualtrics. SAP Cloud Platform will serve as the underlying technology platform for all these areas.
Ries and Kleinemeier to Leave SAP
SAP executive board members Stefan Ries and Michael Kleinemeier have agreed with the supervisory board of SAP to leave the company. Ries will depart at the end of May 2020, while Kleinemeier’s last day will be April 30, 2020.
Ries (53) joined SAP in 2002. By 2010 he was responsible for various human resources (HR) functions, heading up the HR Business Partner organization and overseeing all HR functions on an operational level. Between 2010 and 2014 he was a consultant with Egon Zehnder International. He then returned to SAP and was appointed to the Executive Board in April 2016.
Kleinemeier (62) joined SAP in 1989 and has held various leadership roles, including head of Industry Solutions, managing director of Germany and president of the Middle and Eastern Europe (MEE) region. He was appointed to the Executive Board in 2015, heading SAP Digital Business Services.
“Without Stefan and Michael, SAP would not be where it is today,” said Professor Hasso Plattner, chairman of the supervisory board of SAP. “I would like to thank them both for their many years of close collaboration. Stefan played a major role in making SAP one of the most attractive employers in Germany and internationally, creating a workplace at SAP that drives innovation, performance and engagement. Michael has had a lasting influence on our success and that of our customers for over 30 years. Under his leadership, the Services and Support divisions have played a key role in helping customers on their way to becoming intelligent companies.”
