SAP Nabs Execs From Rivals

All of the executives are based in SAP's Palo Alto, Calif., office, managed by Shai Agassi, president of the German software vendor's Product and Technology Group and a member of the executive board. Most joined SAP in the past two months.

"I chose to come to SAP because it demonstrates the most intelligent execution of strategy I've seen in the industry," said Nimish Mehta, SAP's new senior vice president of Enterprise Information Management. Mehta previously served as group vice president of Siebel's Customer Data Integration unit.

The other new SAP executives are Richard Campione, senior vice president of Industry Solutions and Marketing, and Bob Stutz, senior vice president of the Product and Technology Group (both from Siebel); Mike Mayer, vice president of International Development Associations Project Development, and Dan Rosenberg, senior vice president of the User Experience, Product and Technology Group (both from Oracle); Doug Merritt, executive vice president and general manager for Suite Optimization and Program Office, and John Zepecki, vice president of products for SAP xApps (both from PeopleSoft); George Paolini, executive vice president of Platform Ecosystem Development (from Borland); and Gordon Simpson, vice president of the Applied Technology, Product and Technology Group (from BEA).

Several SAP channel partners said they are impressed by the caliber of the executives that the vendor hired. "This shows the strength of the company and, by extension, its products," said Mike Howard, vice president of sales at Bramasol, a Palo Alto-based solution provider for mySAP All-in-One.