An in-depth fire side chat with market makers. This no-holds barred interview brings out insights and personal point of view from industry leaders.
As a member of the Executive Board, Robert provides direct input into SAP’s business strategy that fuels the research and development priorities across the company’s innovative solution portfolio. His leadership extends to creating and managing a completely integrated cloud portfolio to further scale and accelerate SAP’s long-term business strategy.
Robert joined the SAP Executive Board in 2014 while serving as president of Global Customer Operations. In this role, his evolving portfolio included leading the company’s field revenue and enablement efforts across geographies and overseeing functions such as services, ecosystem and channel, and solutions. Prior to ascending to the role of president, Robert also served as chief operating officer and executive vice president of Fast Growth Markets for the global field organization. In this position, Robert was responsible for developing operations in India, Turkey, Brazil, China, and other emerging-market countries. It was also during this time that Robert served as the interim president and CEO for SAP Latin America.
Previous to assuming a global portfolio, Robert separately held the titles of president and chief operating officer within the North America region after serving three years as president and CEO of SAP Japan Co., Ltd. At the time, Japan held the designation as SAP’s largest subsidiary in Asia. There he led the organization’s turnaround, building the infrastructure necessary for future growth. Today, China has become SAP’s largest business in Asia during which time Robert served as the president of the SAP China Board and oversaw the company’s multi-year targeted investment in the country’s expansion.
Robert initially joined SAP in 1992 and was instrumental in building a significant SAP presence in South Africa. There he held numerous roles in consulting, sales, and solutions management before transferring to SAP America in 1997. During his initial tenure in North America, Robert served as senior vice president and general manager of the Northeast region, responsible for leading SAP America’s largest region in sales; and senior vice president of the manufacturing sector for the region. In addition, Robert built the SAP account management program for SAP America through the Global Alliance Account program, which consisted of SAP’s 50 largest customers.
Before joining SAP, Robert spent 11 years in various roles in the IT industry. An avid supporter of youth advancement and development, he serves as the Executive Sponsor for SAP’s Autism at Work program and continues to serve as the honorary global Chairman of the Els for Autism Golf Challenge. Robert currently sits on the Board of Directors of Discovery Limited in South Africa and Docker in San Francisco, California.