SAP is restructuring its Executive Board

Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer Julia White and Chief Revenue Officer Scott Russell will leave the SAP Executive Board on August 31, 2024. White’s and Russell’s contracts were not due to expire until 2027.

SAP’s explanation for why it is restructuring its Executive Board remains vague.

“Scott and Julia have contributed significantly to SAP’s successful business transition in the cloud and our leadership in Business AI,” CEO Christian Klein said in a statement, thanking both for their efforts and wishing them all the best for the future.

Pekka Ala-Pietilä, the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE, referred to SAP’s own cloud transformation, which he sees as successful, and said, “now is the moment to embark on the next era of growth.” Why White and Russell should no longer play a role in this neither Ala-Pietilä nor Klein explained.

Russell has been with SAP since 2010 and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2021. As chief revenue officer he was responsible for SAP’s global sales and partner organization, as well as for customer engagement. But the company had only recently reorganized this role of supporting SAP customers on their way to the cloud. In order to push the its still-hesitant customers towards cloud transformation, it created the new Executive Board department of Customer Services & Delivery under Thomas Saueressig in April 2024.

Thus, the successor for Russell is likely to concentrate primarily on sales. The search is currently underway, the software provider said. Klein will take over responsibility for the sales organization on an interim basis.

SAP probably wants to break new ground in the marketing area. White, who joined SAP in 2021 after many years at Microsoft, will not be replaced. It is the right time to dissolve the independent Marketing & Solutions division, SAP said. With this adjustment as of Sept. 1, SAP’s Executive Board structure will also be streamlined.

In the future, product marketing is to be more closely interlinked with the product teams, and the corresponding teams are to be brought together.

Going forward, SAP’s Executive Board will have seven heads in the future instead of the previous eight. The body is very male-dominated: After White’s departure, Chief People Officer Gina Vargiu-Breuer will be the only woman.

SAP said the changes will further accelerate the company’s transformation and strengthen its focus on a suite- and AI-first strategy.

The software vendor is facing turbulent times. At the beginning of 2024, the group had announced a restructuring program that would affect about 8,000 jobs. Terms such as layoffs and job cuts were avoided by those responsible. It is a measure to set up qualifications and resources according to future business requirements, the manufacturer hinted. In 2024, the company wants to focus more strongly on key strategic growth areas such as AI for companies.

However, the restructuring seems to go deeper than originally planned. Now up to 10,000 jobs at SAP could be affected by the restructuring, the company recently hinted. In the process, many employees are likely to leave the software manufacturer. SAP managers spoke of a positive response to the volunteer programs, which is reflected, among other things, in higher spending on the program. The group speaks of an additional €600 million that would be spent on restructuring. In total, the manufacturer is spending around €3 billion on the restructuring.