Sabine Bendiek, previously Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Germany, will be the new Board Member at SAP, the German multinational software corporation. Bendiek succeeds Stefan Ries, who left the company at the end of May this year.
Bendiek will join the SAP Executive Board as Chief People Officer and Labor Director in early 2021. Appointed to the Board for a three-year tenure, she will be based in Walldorf. Bendiek will also take on the role of Chief Operating Officer.
In this new role, she will lead the HR and people strategy for the German software giant. Her tasks will include recruiting the best talent in the industry, providing a growth and learning environment for employees, and ensuring a consistent leadership culture to enable inclusion, accountability, and agility.
“In Sabine Bendiek, we have found an exceptional executive who not only can drive a business-centric Human Resources function as the heart of our ongoing transformation but also has deep operational experience,” said Professor Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE.
At Microsoft Germany, under Bendiek’s leadership, the company saw an increase in cloud growth of 50% in 2020. In addition to this, she drove the move of the business to the cloud, which has contributed to Microsoft’s strong position in Germany and its overall transformation. Before her role at Microsoft, she served in various roles at industry-leading companies including Nixdorf, Siemens Nixdorf, McKinsey, Earlybird Venture Capital, Dell, and EMC. Currently, Bendiek is a member of the supervisory board at Schaeffler.
Bendiek said, “SAP is recognized throughout the industry as a growth company and its people are crucial to its ongoing success. In any successful organization, business growth and the people strategy must work hand in hand.”
Bendiek is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a management science degree and holds a degree in business administration from the University of Mannheim. Her experience in the field will continue to drive recruitment, professional development, and leadership strategy for SAP.
