SAP co-CEO Jenifer Morgan steps down amid Coronavirus outbreak
SAP SE co-CEO Jenifer Morgan will step down from her post at the end of the April after the Covid-19 pandemic caused problems with its leadership structure. Morgan was appointed alongside Christian Klein, who joined the company as a student in 1999 and had been Chief Operating Officer since April 2016 before his October promotion, with Morgan, to replace Bill McDermott in the top job. Klein has been a member of SAP’s executive board since 2018.
The company said it is shifting to a lone CEO model now to provide a clearer leadership structure in the face of business challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. SAP also posted its first quarter results, stating business activity in the first two months of the quarter was “healthy" but as the spread of the coronavirus intensified a significant amount of new business was postponed.
SAP had been committed to the co-CEO structure, but when the coronavirus hit, it became clear that having two people in charge was no longer tenable, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Morgan is the first female Chief Executive of a DAX-listed company.
“Jen and I really started with a joint agenda," said Klein in a call with reporters. “The reason we decided to come back to a sole CEO model was because of the outbreak of the pandemic. There was no exact date to when SAP would have come back to a sole CEO model but in these turbulent times we thought now was the right time."
The leadership structure was “disorganized and, at times, chaotic," said the person, who asked not to be named discussing the company’s internal dynamics. It took longer to get some things done because, in certain instances, managers needed to sign off from two different CEO offices, this person said. “It was driving people crazy."
Morgan, 48, joined SAP in 2004 and had been President of the software giant’s cloud business group before being named co-CEO. She became the first American woman appointed to SAP’s executive board in 2017 when she was named President of the Americas and Asia.
McDermott’s departure last year was unexpected, but the new co-CEOs had been on investors’ “short list" to take over in future, Citigroup analysts including Walter Pritchard said in a note at the time of their appointment.
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