By Freya Purnell
SAP AG’s Dr Vishal Sikka, executive board member for products and innovation and the most public face of SAP’s HANA platform has announced his department from the Executive Board for “personal reasons”, effective immediately.
SAP’s Supervisory Board has been quick to announce the appointments of Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert to the Executive Board, with Enslin to continue leading global customer operations and Leukert to assume responsibility for the global development organisation.
Helen Arnold and Stefan Ries have also been appointed to the Global Managing Board, in a move to “strengthen the next generation leadership team of SAP”. Arnold will assume the role of chief information officer for the SAP Group and lead cloud operations and the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, in addition to her current role as the head of SAP’s internal Business Innovations and Application Services organisation.
Ries recently rejoined SAP to lead global human resources, after holding several global and regional leadership positions within SAP’s HR organisation between 2002 and 2010.
Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP AG, paid tribute to Sikka’s work.
“No company in the industry can do what SAP can do in the cloud with the SAP HANA platform today. I would like to personally thank Vishal for his contribution to take SAP to this stage. We will remain friends as he pursues the next step in his journey,” said Plattner.
“Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert have dedicated their careers to SAP’s customers and employees. They will play integral roles in scaling the broad adoption of the SAP HANA Cloud platform and accelerating the company’s success into a new era. I’m also pleased that strong leaders like Helen Arnold and Stefan Ries are stepping into senior leadership positions to drive SAP forward at this moment of significant opportunity.”
Together Enslin and Leukert have been with SAP for a combined 42 years.
“Rob Enslin and Bernd Leukert have played central roles in executing our transition to the cloud and the adoption of SAP HANA,” said SAP co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. “SAP customers are looking for the operational experience, thought leadership and best practices to support their own transformations through innovation without disruption. We are very confident that Rob and Bernd are the right leaders to drive the scale and adoption of the SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA.”
