SAP global co-CEO Jennifer Morgan departs

Multinational software vendor SAP has announced that co-CEO Jennifer Morgan will depart the company later this month.

This paves the way for Christian Klein to become sole chief executive on 30 April 2020, after sharing responsibilities with Morgan since October 2019.

SAP said the decision to move to a sole CEO model came with the current environment, where companies are required “to take swift, determined action”.

“The decision to transfer from Co-CEO to sole CEO model was taken earlier than planned to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in times of an unprecedented crisis,” SAP’s announcement read.

Klein said, “I’d like to thank Jennifer for her partnership over many years. 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.”

Morgan joined SAP in 2004, holding various executive roles including president of Cloud Business Group, where she oversaw Qualtrics, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur.

She was named co-CEO with Klein in October 2019 following the departure of Bill McDermott, who later joined ServiceNow as its CEO.

In the announcement, Morgan said, “It has been a great privilege to drive SAP’s growth and innovation in so many areas and most recently as Co-CEO.”

“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 [SAP board chairman] 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.”