ASUG Exclu­sive: A Can­did Con­ver­sa­tion with SAP CEO Chris­t­ian Klein

With the release of the Q3 earn­ings, there has been a lot of talk in the press sur­round­ing SAP and its com­mit­ment to North Amer­i­ca. SAP CEO Chris­t­ian Klein will sit down with ASUG CEO Geoff Scott for a live dis­cus­sion on Thurs­day, Nov. 12 at 12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. CT. 

Geoff and Chris­t­ian will dis­cuss the fol­low­ing, and more: 

• The cur­rent state of the cus­tomer mind­set in North Amer­i­ca (cost pres­sures, uncer­tain­ty with COVID-19, pri­or­i­ti­za­tion of key projects, etc.)
• SAP’s strat­e­gy and how it will help cus­tomers achieve busi­ness outcomes
• Why SAP remains a key tech­nol­o­gy part­ner for North Amer­i­can customers
• Christian’s vision for SAP in 2 – 5 years
• Where cus­tomers should devote their time and atten­tion to SAP’s prod­uct port­fo­lio and why 

ASUG mem­bers will be able to sub­mit ques­tions for the live Q&A.

ASUG con­nects you to the peo­ple, resources, and road maps you need to suc­ceed with SAP.

About Chris­t­ian Klein:

Chris­t­ian Klein is Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer and mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Board of SAP SE. In his role as COO, Klein leads SAP’s trans­for­ma­tion into an Intel­li­gent Enter­prise by focus­ing on busi­ness process sim­pli­fi­ca­tion, glob­al IT, prod­uct and ser­vices qual­i­ty, port­fo­lio and invest­ment strat­e­gy, intel­li­gent data and ana­lyt­ics, and val­ue achieve­ment through dig­i­tal inno­va­tion adop­tion to the ben­e­fit of both cus­tomers and employees.

Pri­or to becom­ing CEO, Klein in addi­tion to his role as COO was head­ing the Intel­li­gent Enter­prise Group, com­bin­ing glob­al respon­si­bil­i­ty for the devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of SAP’s core appli­ca­tions with the cross-board area man­date for SAP’s glob­al busi­ness oper­a­tions. Klein’s Intel­li­gent Enter­prise Group drove SAP’s dig­i­tal core devel­op­ment func­tions and prod­uct man­age­ment. This includ­ed SAP’s flag­ship prod­uct SAP S/4HANA, SAP Dig­i­tal Sup­ply Chain, and man­ag­ing SAP’s rich indus­try-spe­cif­ic portfolio.

Klein start­ed his career at SAP in 1999 as a stu­dent. He held var­i­ous posi­tions in Active Glob­al Sup­port Oper­a­tions, Ser­vices Oper­a­tions, and Glob­al Con­trol­ling, and served as Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer of SAP Suc­cess­Fac­tors (2011−2012). In 2014, he became Chief Con­trol­ling Offi­cer and on April 1, 2016, he was named Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer. Since Octo­ber 11, 2019, Chris­t­ian Klein and Jen­nifer Mor­gan were Co-CEOs of SAP SE; on April 20, 2020, Chris­t­ian Klein was appoint­ed sole CEO of SAP SE.

Klein holds a diplo­ma in Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Coop­er­a­tive Edu­ca­tion in Mannheim, Germany.

About Geoff Scott:

As CEO of ASUG, Geoff believes that the con­nec­tions we make for our mem­bers have the poten­tial to become career-defin­ing rela­tion­ships that inspire inno­va­tion and suc­cess for their orga­ni­za­tions. His for­ward-think­ing lead­er­ship pri­or­i­tizes help­ing our mem­bers make the most of their invest­ment in SAP tech­nolo­gies. To that end, Geoff works close­ly with cus­tomers, mem­bers, the SAP Exec­u­tive Board, and the exten­sive part­ner ecosys­tem to ampli­fy the voice of the SAP cus­tomer. Addi­tion­al­ly, he enjoys the time he’s able to spend with our mem­bers at ASUG con­fer­ences, events, as well as in infor­mal meetings.

Geoff has more than 20 years of lead­er­ship and tech­nol­o­gy expe­ri­ence, includ­ing sev­en years of exten­sive SAP imple­men­ta­tion and oper­a­tions expe­ri­ence. His back­ground in the auto­mo­tive, food, retail, and start­up spaces brings valu­able, broad-based expe­ri­ence to ASUG. Past posi­tions include CIO for TOMS Shoes, where he led the imple­men­ta­tion of SAP; CIO at JBS; and senior lead­er­ship posi­tions at Ford Motor Com­pa­ny. Before becom­ing CEO, Geoff was an ASUG mem­ber and served on the board.

Geoff has served on a num­ber of phil­an­thropic boards and is the found­ing mem­ber of the Den­ver CIO Exec­u­tive Coun­cil. He is a proud Spar­tan and alum of Michi­gan State Uni­ver­si­ty, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in account­ing as well as his MBA. In his spare time, Geoff is an avid sports pho­tog­ra­ph­er in his com­mu­ni­ty and chal­lenges him­self to keep up his appli­ca­tion devel­op­ment skills by cre­at­ing apps for his own enjoy­ment and use. Con­nect with Geoff on Twit­ter @gscott16.