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Gives up chairmanship of the SAP supervisory board:
Some investors have been calling for the resignation of co-founder
Hasso Plattner for a long time
Photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
An era will end at SAP in May: co-founder
Hasso Plattner
(80) will step down as chairman of the supervisory board after around two decades. The technology group is about to make another great appointment: Plattner's planned successor
Punit Renjen
(63), former CEO of Deloitte, is leaving the board after just around ten months.
SAP and Renjen had decided to part ways by mutual agreement, the Walldorf-based company announced on Sunday evening. The reason is the different ideas about the role of the future chairman of the supervisory board. Renjen will resign from his position on the Supervisory Board at the SAP Annual General Meeting on May 15, 2024.
SAP has already found a replacement for Renjen:
Pekka Ala-Pietilä
(57) is to take over his position and in May also the chairmanship from Plattner, whose departure some investors have been calling for for some time. Ala-Pietilä is CEO and co-founder of Blyk, a Finnish mobile operator. Previously, he held senior positions at Nokia for several years.
On paper, Renjen seemed a good candidate for the Plattner job: He knew SAP's customers through his work at Deloitte; is internationally positioned. However, manager magazin reported last year about anger regarding Renjen's way of working: He is said to have interfered too much in everyday business.
The trouble doesn't seem to have abated since then. Not an easy start for Ala-Pietilä - a misstep is no longer possible.