Prof. Dr. h.c. Hasso Plattner

is one of the co-founders of SAP AG and has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board since May 2003. In this role and as Chief Software Advisor, he concentrates on defining the medium- and long- term technology strategy and direction of SAP. He also heads the Technology Committee of the SAP Supervisory Board.

In 1972, Hasso Plattner and four colleagues left IBM in Mannheim, Germany, to found SAP (Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing). Based in Walldorf, Germany, SAP AG is today the leading provider of enterprise software solutions integrating processes within and among enterprises and business communities.

When SAP went public in 1988, Hasso Plattner was appointed Vice Chairman of the Executive Board. From 1997 to May 2003, he was Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of SAP. In May 2003, he was elected to the SAP Supervisory Board and took over the chairmanship from co-founder Dietmar Hopp.

Hasso Plattner received his Master’s Degree in Communications Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe. In 1990, the University of Saarbrücken awarded him an honorary doctorate and in 1994, he was granted an honorary full professorship. In 1997, as chairman of SAP America, Inc., co-chairman of SAP and the chief architect of SAP R/3, Hasso Plattner received the Information Technology Leadership Award for Global Integration as part of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program. In 1998, he was inducted into the German Hall of Fame. In 2002, Hasso Plattner was appointed Honorary Doctor, and in 2004 Honorary Professor by the University of Potsdam.

Hasso Plattner also founded the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) for IT Systems Engineering at the University of Potsdam in 1998 with the largest single private contribution to a university ever made in Germany. Through his continuing financial support, he is helping the HPI in its efforts to become a center for the education of world-class software specialists.