Carl Olofson

Carl Olofson has performed research and analysis for IDC since 1997, and manages IDC’s Database Management Software service, as well as supporting the Data Integration Software and Data Streaming Pipelines services. Mr. Olofson’s research involves following sales and technical developments in the structured data management (SDM) markets, including database management systems (DBMS), which includes non-schematic database management systems, data lake managers, navigational database management systems, low code database management systems, and memory-optimized shared data managers. Also covered is the database administration and development software market. He also contributes to Big Data research and provides specialized coverage of Hadoop and other Big Data technologies. He advises clients on market and technology directions as well as performing supply and demand-side primary research to size, forecast, and segment the database and related software markets.
 
Mr. Olofson has worked in the IT industry since 1978, including two years of application development consulting, 10 years of database and tools software development, four years of product consulting, and three years as a senior product manager. His career has been dedicated to effective and practical data and metadata design, development, and management for enterprises.

Chad Crook

Chad Crook is a leader in SAP’s Cloud Success Service area and serves in the capacity of Chief Innovation Officer.

Chad has a combined 15 years of experience, serving in both commercial, and operational executive leadership roles. He most recently was Senior Vice President of Success Centers, and prior to that was Head of Customer Engagement for Procurement leading the SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass teams and was COO of Customer Value Organization.  

In his current capacity, Chad is focused on innovating the Advanced Layer of our customer experience having responsibility for our Preferred Success and Training & Adoption brand offerings.  These innovations are focused on maximizing efficiency and effectiveness of how we run, which translates into a more consistent and dynamic experience for our customers. 

Chad has immense passion for driving key business outcomes and delivering unparalleled value for our customers. In his personal time, this native Georgian, now residing in Texas enjoys family, health, wellness, and travel.

Dan Yu

Daniel is responsible for solution management and product marketing for SAP Data and Analytics teams. He drives the commercial strategy and go-to-market strategies for all SAP database and analytics products such as SAP HANA Cloud, Data Warehouse Cloud, Analytics Cloud, etc. Before this role, he was responsible for Microsoft Azure’s analytics and data governance business and as well as the head of products for analytics startups such as Usermind (now part of Qualtrics), Apptio, and iSpot.tv.He was also a co-founder of an artificial intelligence startup specializing in process mining and SCM optimization using SAP data.

David Williams

David Williams is Vice President of Product Marketing for SAP’s data and analytics solutions, including SAP HANA Cloud, Data Warehouse Cloud, and Analytics Cloud, which help maximize the value of your data for the most impactful decisions.

Fabian Padilla-Crisol

Fabian is in charge of SAP’s Strategic Partnerships Programs. In this role he is overseeing the go-to-market, performance and support of programs for strategic partnerships.

Before, Fabian was in charge of SAP’s overall market performance in Hong Kong and Macau, and supported enterprise customers to navigate complex digital landscapes and explore new growth opportunities through innovation. He champions SAP’s customer-first approach and enables customers to become Intelligent Enterprises, and accelerate digital transformation through SAP’s best-in-class applications.

He brings two decades of strategic, executive, and product development experience at SAP to his new role. Fabian has held various roles in solution development, project implementation, sales management, and strategic counselling. He has led multi-cultural teams across Asia Pacific and Japan, EMEA and the Americas and spearheaded successful transformation programs, and developed new business ecosystems.

Before taking the helm in Hong Kong, Fabian’s prior positions included providing counsel and support to SAP Executive Board members Jennifer Morgan, now SAP co-CEO, and Adaire Fox-Martin, in running strategic projects within the Global Customer Operations organization. He earlier served as Global Vice President of Global Customer Operations and was Head of Strategic Finance Projects Delivery at SAP headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. 

Helge Sanden

Helge Sanden is editor-in-chief of the SAP community portal ‘IT-Onlinemagazin.de’. In 2004, he founded the ‘Forum for SAP®’, a large business network that aims to connect German-speaking SAP managers, experts and top-level employees.The IT-Onlinemagazin.de is a compact and entertaining guide, focussing on the economic benefits of matching SAP, partner and add-on solutions. And it offers suggestions and impulses for one's own area of responsibility in company environments.Helge also presents this as a speaker at conferences and professional events, giving the idea of a beneficial community an even wider audience.

Jon Reed

Jon Reed is an independent analyst and Enterprise Irregular who blogs and videocasts on enterprise trends.

He is a cofounder of diginomica.com. Launched in the spring of 2013 by Jon and four other enterprise bloggers, diginomica.com provides original commentary and reporting on the digital enterprise. Jon has been involved in enterprise communities since 1995, including time spent building ERP recruiting and training firms.

These days, Jon is a roving blogger/analyst, and also counsels vendors and startups on go-to-market strategy.

Marc Rolfe

Marc Rolfe is the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Strategic Partners at SAP SE responsible for working with SAP’s largest strategic partners on digital and industry transformation initiatives with responsibility for driving growth strategies and execution across all geographies and business segments.

Before taking his current position, Marc served as Global Vice President responsible for Ecosystem Innovation and managed SAP’s largest Global Services Partner, Accenture. Marc has also held executive positions running teams responsible for SAP’s strategic customers for SAP China and was the Global Account Director at SAP America for IBM Corporation. In both positions he was responsible for the business relationships, operations, and customer success.

Marc has more than 25 years of progressive experience in technology solution selling large account management and global business development. Prior to joining SAP, Marc served as the vice president of business development for Telispark, a mobile enterprise application software leader, where he was responsible for the development of channel and marketing strategies. He also worked for TIBCO Software, serving as senior manager of wireless solutions.

Marc currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.

Michelle Craig

Michelle Craig is VP of Thought Leadership & Integrated Marketing at SAP Concur and a strategic marketing leader and business partner—guiding high-profile strategies and campaigns and driving global business results. 

Michelle works across the global marketing team to unify messaging across channels, elevating SAP Concur thought leadership presence and accelerating business transformation.

Michelle’s earlier roles included senior corporate communications and agency leadership positions, working with both start-ups and established global companies in the tech sector, and leading creative programs and high-performing teams with results beyond expectations. 

Mike Keilen

Mike Keilen has over 30 years’ experience in the enterprise software industry, specializing in Integration, Enterprise Information Management, Process Automation and Application Development Solutions.  Over his career he has built and led teams responsible for solution/product management, product marketing, product development and channel sales. Currently Mike serves as a Global VP leading SAP’s BTP Integration and Data Management (EIM) Product Marketing and Solutions group.  Mike holds a degree in Computer Science and an MBA.    

Owen Pettiford

Owen Pettiford has been working with SAP and non-SAP systems since 1991 and currently working for Neptune Software. Since 2005 he has worked with SAP clients to create architectures and designs that are aligned to their business objectives. He is known for his ability to translate between business and IT, recognising the needs of both. His passion for using IT to free human talent means he is always looking for how new technologies can be used to remove repetitive tasks, deliver automated insights and simplify the user journey. Outside of IT he has had a "mid-life crisis fitness revolution", restores classic cars and has a very understanding wife, 2 grown up daughters and 2 dogs. 

Seema Kesselring

Seema Vishnoi Kesselring is Global VP of Product Strategy in Customer Experience organization. Seema is passionate about innovation & adoption of SAP Customer Experience product portfolio to help customers succeed in the digitally transformative projects leveraging intelligent technologies. She has played key roles in product and engineering organization, sales go to market, sales operations, Innovative business solutions and successfully lead various strategic initiatives with customers and within SAP. 

Seema is also an adjunct professor and teaches in the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University. She earned her MBA from Villanova University and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Sciences. She can be reached at seema.kesselring@sap.com.

Steve White

Steve WhiteProgram Vice President, Channels and Alliances at IDC

Steve White is Program Vice President for the WW Channels and Alliances research team. He manages a group of channels and alliances analysts as well as their related research products, with extended teams in EMEA & APeJ.

The Channels and Alliances research team focuses on research around changing partner ecosystem dynamics, following the trends and best practices to allow benchmarking. As part of the channels subscription programs, the WW team also run 'Leadership Councils' where industry channels and alliances leaders & their peers attend twice a year to discuss the latest research, trends, and drive the future research agenda. These councils enable unique analyst hosted conversations around the burning partner ecosystem topics.

Prior to joining IDC, Steve spent over seven years at Microsoft both in the United Kingdom and Canada, and has over  20 years experience in senior marketing roles in enterprise, services and partner businesses with leading technology vendors such as Microsoft, Compaq and Digital Equipment Company in the UK.

Originally educated and trained as a management accountant in the UK, Steve progressed via business analyst roles into marketing early in his career, and enjoys working with clients on their partner ecosystem challenges with a focus on better outcomes for vendors and their partners. He is located in IDC's Toronto office. 

Follow Steve on Twitter @Whiterope.

Sven Denecken

Sven DeneckenSven Denecken is Senior Vice President, COO SAP S/4HANA and Head of Product Success at SAP. In this role, next to the COO function, which is implementing business operations to developing the organization and its people, controlling, and communications, Sven is assessing customer and market requirements and supporting SAP S/4HANA's strategy. 

Sven’s many years of experience working with customers and partners together with an extensive network that includes the SAP field organization and industry analysts, enable the SAP S/4HANA development teams to respond quickly to changing markets to ultimately provide a solution that helps customers gain a competitive advantage.

As member of SAP´s executive leadership and closely cooperating with the respective teams, Sven supports the strategy of SAP´s solutions and its alignment with customers and the ecosystem. 

Timo Elliott

Timo Elliott is a Global Innovation Evangelist for SAP. He works closely with leading-edge organizations around the world on their digital transformation initiatives. Over the last 30 years with the company, he has given presentations to business and IT leaders in over 60 different countries, talking about SAP's strategy and future trends, illustrated with real-world examples of customer innovation. He has worked in the UK, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and California, and currently lives in Paris, France. He has a degree in Econometrics and holds a patent in the area of mobile analytics.