SAP appoints new presidents in EMEA and Latin America

The new leaders assume their roles as Erwin Gunst, formerly president of SAP EMEA, and Bill McDermott, formerly president and CEO of Americas & Asia Pacific Japan, assume new executive positions within the company and officially join the Executive Board of SAP AG as previously announced on April 2, 2008.

Leadership in the EMEA region

José Duarte, in the role of president and CEO, EMEA, will focus on delivering continued growth in the region, building upon the success of his predecessor Gunst. Duarte's priority will be to continue delivering value to our customers with the ultimate objective of making every one of them a best-run business.

Duarte brings more than 15 years of SAP experience to the position, most recently as executive vice president of Large Enterprise, EMEA. Previously, he served as president of SAP Latin America. Duarte began his career with SAP in the EMEA region in SAP Portugal. He held positions of growing responsibility that culminated in January 2003, when he was appointed regional managing director of South West EMEA NEWS, in charge of operations for Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, the Middle East and Israel.

Duarte's subsequent leadership of the Latin America region saw increases in software revenue by more than 36% and new names by 80% in 2007 alone. He replaces Erwin Gunst, who has been named chief operating officer, SAP AG.

Gunst's new role of chief operating officer represents the continuing maturity of SAP's organizational focus on sustainable, profitable growth and efficient operations. It is in keeping with the Executive Board's commitment to continuous improvement in shareholder and customer value as the company remains on its growth path.

'José demonstrated outstanding, customer-centric leadership while in Latin America,' said Bill McDermott. 'His ability to exceed expectations throughout his SAP tenure made him a natural choice to continue building momentum in the EMEA region.'

Cardenuto leads Latin America

Rodolpho Cardenuto has been appointed president and CEO of SAP Latin America. Cardenuto joins SAP from HP, where he was director of industry sales and alliances for Latin America & Caribbean. During his 15 years at HP, Cardenuto held various positions of increasing responsibility, from sales management in Brazil to leading the company's SME business at the Latin American level.

Cardenuto replaces Rob Enslin, chief operating officer of SAP Americas, who was temporarily assigned to manage Latin America in the wake of José Duarte's move to EMEA.

McDermott to head Global Field Operations

Overseeing SAP's three regional field organizations is Bill McDermott, who has been named president and CEO of Global Field Operations. In this role, McDermott will have worldwide responsibility for all customer operations. McDermott previously led the company's operations in the Americas and Asia Pacific Japan.

'These appointments reflect both our dynamic business and the superb executive strength of our leadership team,' said Léo Apotheker, co-CEO, SAP. 'Our success has always come from the company's depth of engagement with customers, and Bill and Ernie have consistently delivered a customer-oriented approach to business. We now are continuing to strengthen our field leadership team with José and Rodolpho, and we congratulate these executives on their new roles.'