SAP restructures board to emphasize AI-first, suite-first strategy

SAP is starting the 2025 financial year with a new executive board. The German software company announced that 39-year-old Sebastian Steinhäuser will be promoted to the executive board. In the future, Steinhäuser will head the newly created Strategy & Operations board group and, in this position, will continue to drive the implementation of SAP’s strategy and simplify company processes.

The integration of Strategy & Operations with Global Marketing, which is headed by the newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer Ada Agrait, is intended to improve collaboration and strengthen the digital experience for customers and partners, SAP said in a statement.

Steinhäuser joined SAP in 2020 and has held various roles, including chief strategy officer. In this role, he led the growth areas of Business Transformation Management, Business Network, and Sustainability. In 2024, he was appointed chief strategy and operations officer. His area of ​​responsibility expanded to include business operations, processes, and IT, as well as partner network and commercial functions. Before joining SAP, Steinhäuser worked at Boston Consulting Group.

SAP shook up its management circle just six months ago, when, in August 2024, Scott Russell and Julia White, the head of sales and the head of marketing, surprisingly left SAP.

Steinhäuser: Future architect of SAP

“Since 2020, Sebastian Steinhäuser has played a key role in SAP’s corporate strategy,” said Pekka Ala-Pietilä, chairman of the supervisory board of SAP SE. “We see him as an important leader and architect of SAP’s future.”

SAP’s Supervisory Board also extended the contract of Executive Board member Thomas Saueressig, head of customer services and delivery, for a further three years until 2028. “His contributions were and are crucial to ensuring that more and more SAP customers choose the path to the cloud,” Ala-Pietilä commented on the appointment.

There are also changes in the second management row at the Walldorf, Germany-based company. SAP introduced a new CTO and two new chief revenue officers.

Philipp Herzig will take on the role of global CTO at SAP, in addition to his current position as chief AI officer. In his new position, Herzig will oversee SAP’s technology strategy, innovation, research, and corporate development. His homework also includes ensuring the success of SAP’s business AI and sustainability units and continuing to drive innovation for SAP customers and partners. The CTO position at SAP had been vacant since September 2024 after the previous Chief Technology Officer Jürgen Müller had to leave for “inappropriate behavior.”

Jan Gilg and Emmanuel (Manos) Raptopoulos will jointly lead the SAP Customer Success organization as chief revenue officers. Gilg, currently president and chief product officer of Cloud ERP, will then take over SAP Americas and the global SAP Business Suite. Raptopoulos, currently regional president of SAP EMEA, will also lead the SAP MEE and SAP APAC regions.

SAP strategy: AI-first, suite-first

Herzig, Gilg, and Raptopoulos will report to SAP CEO Christian Klein and will be members of SAP’s newly formed extended Executive Board, which will act as a strategic advisory body to drive forward the implementation of the company’s “AI first, Suite first” strategy.

“This will align important initiatives at a global level and ensure their smooth implementation throughout the company,” the company said. The SAP Executive Board will remain the highest management body of SAP SE.

In addition to Herzig, Gilg, and Raptopoulos, the extended management board includes Ada Agrait (CMO), Michael Ameling (general manager BTP), Sebastian Behrendt (head of global finance), Thomas Pfiester (head of global customer engagement) and Monika Schaller (chief communications officer).

A General Manager for the Business Suite division in the extended management team is still to be appointed.

With Agrait, Schaller, and Chief People Officer Gina Vargiu-Breuer, there are now three female managers in SAP’s 15-person management circle — just 20%.