The Biz of Coding

SAP loses CEO-in-Waiting, Shai Aggasi

by Ujwal Tickoo on April 2nd, 2007

Shai Aggasi, CEO in-waiting at SAP, and president of its product and technology group has decided to move on. Aggasi 39, was asked by SAP to pledge a 10 years committment and share a Co-CEO role with Leo Apotheker after the current CEO Kagermann retired.

Hasso Plattner, founder and chairman of SAPs board had handpicked Aggasi for making SAP more aggressive. He and several others feel that Aggasi's departure is a blow to the company. Aggasi wants to focus on making environment friendly cars and was unhappy about having to wait for several years before taking over SAP's leadership on his own terms. A Businessweek Q&A with Aggasi is here.

Businessweek reports:

Plattner said in a conference call on Mar. 28 that he'd asked Agassi to make a 10- to 15-year commitment to the company, an arrangement Agassi declined. SAP also extended Kagermann's contract, set to expire at the end of 2007, until May, 2009. Agassi was displeased with the decision and didn't want to wait to assume the top job, according to Plattner. "He's so young. I said, 'I can't understand this.' But he has other plans," said Plattner. "I'm disappointed, but this is looking backward."

SAP faces increasing competition from ORACLE. Recently ORACLE filed a lawsuit against SAP claiming that 10,000 of its tech support files were stolen by someone from SAP. Was it necessary for them to push out a valuable, young executive from the company?

POSTED IN: SAP