- SAP SE announced it named Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-CEOs at the company as Bill McDermott is stepping down
SAP SE announced it named Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-CEOs at the company. Morgan and Klein will be succeeding Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott — who is stepping down after a decade as the head of the company.
Morgan and Klein are going being named co-CEOs effective immediately. And McDermott will move into an advisory role through the end of the year.
“SAP would not be what it is today without Bill McDermott,” said Professor Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE. “Bill made invaluable contributions to this company and he was a main driver of SAP’s transition to the cloud, which will fuel our growth for many years to come. We thank him for everything he has done for SAP. We also congratulate Jennifer and Christian for this opportunity to build on the strong foundation we have for the future of SAP. Bill and I made the decision over a year ago to expand Jennifer and Christian’s roles as part of a long-term process to develop them as our next generation of leaders. We are confident in their vision and capabilities as we take SAP to its next phase of growth and innovation.”
Morgan joined SAP in 2004 and was previously the president of the company’s cloud business group. And she was the first American woman appointed to SAP’s executive board in 2017 after being named the president of the Americas and Asia.
“I could not be more grateful to Hasso Plattner and the Supervisory Board for placing their trust in me and Christian to lead this next chapter for SAP. We accept the challenge with a high degree of humility, but also with a sincere belief that the best is yet to come for SAP,” added Morgan. “We have the finest, most talented colleagues in the world who give us so much confidence in the road ahead. Bill McDermott has been not only a tremendous leader, but a mentor and a role model for so many of us. In Bill, we stand on the shoulders of a giant and look forward to building on his legacy of success.”
And Klein joined SAP as a student in 1999. Klein was named chief operating officer in April 2016 and was on the executive board since 2018.
“As someone who began my career in the halls of SAP, this is the highest honor I can imagine to become co-CEO together with Jennifer. Hasso Plattner has given us a tremendous opportunity and we are truly thankful to him and the Supervisory Board,” explained Klein. “SAP has the most comprehensive solution portfolio in the industry. We have an unprecedented opportunity to finish what we started and deliver the intelligent enterprise. This will be the best way to honor our predecessor, Bill McDermott. We will always strive to be leaders who bring out the best in people like Bill has always done.”
Even though McDermott’s departure was not expected, the co-CEOs were on a shortlist of potential successors for a while.
“Every CEO dreams of being able to transition a company to its next-generation from a position of significant strength,” commented McDermott. “When you look at where we were and where we are, I simply could not be prouder of what this company has achieved over the past decade. I am thankful for the opportunity to lead one of the world’s finest companies. Now is the moment for everyone to begin an exciting new chapter, and I am confident that Jennifer and Christian will do an outstanding job. I look forward to supporting them as they finish 2019 and lay the foundation for 2020 and beyond. To every customer, partner, shareholder and colleague who invested their trust in SAP, I can only relay my heartfelt gratitude and enduring respect.”
McDermott originally joined SAP in 2002. And he became the American to hold the CEO position at Walldorf, Germany-based SAP.
Under McDermott’s leadership, the company aggressively pursued cloud computing deals. As a result, SAP is expecting to triple cloud revenue by 2023. This means SAP’s cloud revenue would hit $15 billion by then.
In SAP’s preliminary third-quarter report, the company is expecting cloud bookings to increase 33% on a constant currency basis, which is more than double the rate of the second quarter.
Adaire Fox-Martin, an Executive Board Member at SAP SE, had told Business Insider in August that the company is at “the tail end of that process in terms of the transformation of our business to the cloud.”
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