Erwin Gunst, President of SAP’s EMEA NEWS (North, East, West, South) Region

Erwin Gunst is President of SAP’s EMEA NEWS (North, East, West, South) Region. In this capacity, he is responsible for field operations in the following sales regions: EEM (EMEA Emerging Markets consisting of Central and Eastern Europe, CIS, Greece, Turkey, Middle East), SWE (South West Europe consisting of Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and North Africa) and NUKIA (Nordic, United Kingdom, Ireland & Africa). He was appointed to his current position in October 2004.

Gunst has been with SAP since May 1988. He was responsible for building up the controlling department at SAP International in Biel, Switzerland. In 1990 he was promoted to Director Finance & Controlling. From 1993 to 1999, Gunst was Managing Director of the SAP subsidiaries in Belgium, Switzerland and the UK. In April 2000 he was appointed to the SAP Extended Executive Board, responsible for the region Germany/Switzerland.

Gunst left SAP at the end of 2001 and worked as an independent consultant. He returned to SAP in 2004, to take up his current position.

He began his professional career in 1984 as an audit assistant at Touche Ross. In 1986, he was a financial analyst at Telex Computer Products.

Erwin Gunst studied at the Free University, Brussels, where he received a Commercial Engineering degree with distinction. He was born in 1959 in Ostend, Belgium.

He has been a member of the supervisory board of SAP Systems Integration since May 2003.  

Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, COO, EMEA NEWS

Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, born 1964, studied computer science at the University of the Saarland, Germany, where he earned his PhD in 1992. Before writing his dissertation, Dr. Abolhassan worked in Siemens AG’s research department in Munich, Germany, and on research assignments at IBM in San Jose, California. Dr. Abolhassan began his professional career in 1992 as sales director of SAP Retail Solutions. Up until 2001, he completed an array of more advanced assignments at SAP Retail Solutions, lastly as managing director, as well as at SAP AG, where he was, as senior vice president from 1998 on, responsible for retail and consumer products. In 2001 he relocated to IDS Scheer AG as co-chairman and CEO, taking over responsibility for internationalization and marketing. Since 2005 Dr. Abolhassan has served as chief operating officer of EMEA NEWS at SAP. He is an accomplished author and editor of a multitude of German and international specialized publications and books dealing with real-time enterprises, business process management, and internationalization.

Eric Duffaut, Senior Vice President, Partner Channel & SMEs, EMEA NEWS

Eric Duffaut joined SAP in March 2005 as Senior Vice President Channel & Small & Midsize Enterprises (SME), EMEA NEWS (North, East, West, South) Region. He has been Co-leader for the design of the new Global SME Go To Market strategy. He leads and drives the SME field operation in EMEA NEWS.

Eric has almost 20 years of experience in the IT industry, including 15 at Oracle where he held sales & several Executive leadership positions. More recently, Eric was Vice President Sales Channels and OracleDirect, EMEA.
Eric studied in France where he received a DECS (Master in Economy and Finance), ESICI (Business School) – 3rd Degree & Advanced Management Program, INSEAD.