SAP continues to tweak exec team

There's a new COO

SAP has continued to tweak its exec team with the appointment of Gerhard Oswald as its new chief operating officer.

Oswald, who was previously responsible for SAP's global service and support, replaces previous COO, Erwin Gunst, who left the company due to health reasons. Oswald has been an executive board member since 1996.

In addition, Peter Lorenz, executive vice president of Small and Midsize Enterprises, has been named a corporate officer and will oversee the development of the SAP portfolio of SME solutions, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One.

The management shake-up comes after the resignation of SAP CEO, Leo Apotheker, earlier this month, which was followed by the appointment of Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe as co-CEOs.

SAP's supervisory board chairman, Hasso Plattner, said these further senior exec changes will support the co-CEO leadership, an approach that SAP has found successful in the past.

John Schwarz, who headed up SAP's BusinessObjects business intelligence division, has also resigned from the company.

SAP is making more changes in a bid to improve the company's fortunes
(Photo credit: SAP)

Schwarz joined SAP in 2008 when the company he headed up, BusinessObjects, was acquired by the German business software giant. Schwarz played a key role in the integration of BusinessObjects with the rest of the SAP business, according to Plattner.