eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
SAP AG said on Sept. 28 that it hired Uwe Herold to take on the CIO role at the company.
Herold will be based at the companys global headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.
Whats notable about Herolds hiring is that he is rising not from the ranks of the company—as the majority of board-level executives have at SAP—but has been brought in from the outside.
The shining exception in SAPs executive formula is the rapid rise of Shai Agassi, currently the president of the Product and Technology Group at SAP, and an executive board member.
Agassi was brought into the fold at SAP in 2001 when SAP acquired TopTier, the company Agassi founded in Israel with his father.
A year later Agassi was named to SAPs executive board, where he remains the companys only non-German-speaking executive.
Herold, on the other hand, has his roots in the companys homeland.
He is moving over from German automotive supplier Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co., where he held the position of CIO.
While at Brose Fahrzeugteile, Herold was responsible for the groups German information systems, as well as for the implementation and migration of a number of SAP applications.
Prior to his stint at Brose, which started in 1999, Herold worked for Hydac Filtertechnik GmbH, where he headed process engineering and organizational development for the company.
Herold, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany, will report to executive board member Claus Heinrich.