SAP Co-CEO Jennifer Morgan is departing the company, leaving Christian Klein as sole CEO.
Morgan has been with the company since 2004, and jointly held the role of CEO with Klein since October 2019. The company says that Morgan “mutually agreed with the Supervisory Board of SAP SE” to resign and depart, effective April 30. At the same time, the announcement makes clear that the current economic crisis was a driving factor, with the decision to get behind a single CEO being “taken earlier than planned to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in times of an unprecedented crisis.” A single CEO will give the company a clear, unified leadership structure.
“I’d like to thank Jennifer for her partnership over many years,” said CEO Christian Klein. “Throughout SAP’s transformation, Jennifer has always been laser-focused on customers, partners, shareholders and employees. It’s thanks to her that we have established a strong position in experience management solutions. I know she will always be a champion of SAP.”
“It has been a great privilege to drive SAP’s growth and innovation in so many areas and most recently as Co-CEO,” said Jennifer Morgan. “With unprecedented change within the world, it has become clear that now is the right time for the company to transition to a single CEO leading the business. I would like to thank Hasso Plattner for the opportunity to co-lead this great company, and I wish Christian, the Executive Board, and SAP’s talented team much success as they drive the company forward.”
It will be interesting to watch SAP to see if the change has a noticeable impact on the company’s operations.