Léo Apotheker (born 18 September 1953) is a German

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations ...

. He served briefly as the chief executive officer of

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

from November 2010 until his dismissal in September 2011. He also served as co-chief executive officer of SAP from April 2008 until he resigned in February 2010 following a decision by that company not to renew his contract. During his tenure as chief executive at HP, the company lost more than $30 billion in market capitalization after a series of strategic missteps by the company, leading to his resignation. At SAP, which he joined in 1988 and where he spent more than 20 years, he played an instrumental role in developing and implementing a number of significant changes. Apotheker currently sits on the board of KMD, Schneider Electric SA, Steria, and the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance. He previously served on the board of directors of

GT Nexus Infor Nexus (formerly known as GT Nexus) is an independent business unit of Infor LLC offering a multienterprise supply chain network. The on-demand global supply chain management platform and integrated applications are used worldwide by busine ...

. Apotheker is fluent in five languages: German, Dutch, French, English and Hebrew.

Early life and education

Apotheker's parents were

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

who fled to the

Soviet-Chinese border Chinese Soviet or Soviet Chinese may refer to: *Chinese Soviet Republic *Sino-Soviet relations *Individual Chinese people in the Soviet Union, or the soviets which represented them there; see: **Dungan people ** Chinese people in Soviet Russia *Lang ...

after the Nazis invaded Poland at the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. After the war, they settled in

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th ...

, Germany, where Apotheker was born. He later moved to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Belgium. By his own account, he organized a student strike in high school, and had two of his teeth knocked out by a policeman on horseback in the melee that followed. At the age of 18, he moved to Israel where he studied economics at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Career

Early career and SAP: 1988–2010

Prior to joining SAP in 1988, Apotheker held several financial and operations positions at European companies. After joining SAP, he held positions of increasing responsibility; and in 1995 was promoted to CEO and founder of SAP France and SAP Belgium. Later in 1997, he became the president of SAP's South West Europe region; and by 1999, president of SAP EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) sales region. He joined the SAP AG executive board in 2002 and served as the President of Global Field Operations from 2002 to 2007. He was appointed deputy CEO in 2007, and promoted to co-CEO of the company in April 2008 to ensure a smooth handover from his predecessor, Henning Kagermann, when the latter's contract with the company expired. The succession plan was communicated in the business media early in 2008, including ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine. The transition received praise as an example of SAP's corporate culture, "a seemingly contradictory mix of internal consensus and competition". Apotheker's appointment to lead SAP was the second occasion, after 1997

Ron Sommer Ron Sommer (born July 29, 1949 in Haifa, Israel, as Aaron Lebowitsch) is a manager and former CEO of Deutsche Telekom. Sommer is Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the Russian Sistema Group, where he was elected to the Executive Bo ...

's appointment as CEO of

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

, that a large German company was run by a Jewish executive whose parents escaped the Holocaust. "If SAP had a pre-war history, I would never have joined the company", he told ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

''. Apotheker took an early opportunity to set out his vision for the IT industry, and explained

enterprise software Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, ...

in layman's terms (likening it to the human nervous system), in an interview with prominent American journalist

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co- ...

. He also articulated SAP's commitment to

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

. On 7 February 2010, the SAP supervisory board reached an agreement with Apotheker not to extend his contract as a member of the SAP executive board. With this decision, he stepped down as CEO and resigned from SAP.

Hewlett-Packard: 2010–2011

On 30 September 2010, the Board of Directors of

announced the election of Apotheker as the company's Chief Executive Officer and President, effective 1 November. He succeeded Cathie Lesjak, who served as the company's interim CEO since 6 August, following the abrupt departure of former CEO

Mark Hurd Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation. He had previously served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, a ...

. Hurd had been forced to resign after an internal investigation into a sexual harassment claim (that found him not guilty) uncovered expense-account irregularities. During Apotheker's tenure at HP, the stock dropped about 40%. It dropped nearly 25% on 19 August 2011 after HP announced a number of seemingly abrupt strategic decisions: to discontinue its

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS and previously known as Open webOS, HP webOS and Palm webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices such as smart TVs that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially ...

device business (mobile phones and tablet computers), to begin planning to divest its personal computer division, and to acquire British software firm

Autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one' ...

for a significant premium. Over the months following Apotheker's departure, HP eventually spun off the remaining webOS assets into a new subsidiary,

Gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to th ...

; backtracked on any plans to spin-off its personal computer division; and wrote-down almost $9 billion related to the Autonomy acquisition, which it indicated was due to a lack of due diligence during the acquisition process under Apotheker. On 22 September 2011, the HP Board of Directors replaced Apotheker as chief executive, effective immediately, with fellow board member and former

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

chief

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

. Though Apotheker served barely ten months, he received over $13 million in compensation: a severance payment of $7.2 million, shares worth $3.56 million, and a performance bonus of $2.4 million, although the company lost more than $30 billion in market capitalization during his tenure.

After HP: 2011–present

After HP, Apotheker returned to Paris. He, along with some private equity firms in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

, are considering investing in mature and distressed companies. In March 2012, he appeared on a conference call, hosted by

Nomura Securities is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, Inc. (NHI), which forms part of the Nomura Group. It plays a central role in the securities business, the Group's core business. Nomura is a financial services group and global investment bank. ...

analyst Rick Sherlund. On 1 June 2012, he was appointed as an independent director to board of the Paris-based information technology services provider,

Steria Sopra Steria is a Paris-based consulting, digital services, and software development company. Sopra Steria has a new consulting wing under the “Next” brand. It employs 3,400 consultants across Europe, including 1,900 in the group’s native ...

. He currently sits on the

supervisory board In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors. In civil s ...

s of

Schneider Electric Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automatio ...

SA, Steria, and

. He is also a board member of PlaNet Finance, a non-profit organization. In December 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the board at

KMD KMD ('' K.M.D.'', ''Kausing Much Damage'', or ''A Positive Kause in a Much Damaged Society'') was an American hip hop trio active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The core of the group was composed of brothers Daniel "Zev Love X" Dumile an ...

, a Danish information technology service provider. In 2014, he joined UNIT4—a Dutch software provider headquartered in the Netherlands—as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board. In May 2016, he joined Signavio GmbH—a German software provider headquartered in Berlin—as Non-Executive Chairman of the company's Advisory Board. In 2021, he joined Appway as first independent board member. In May 2022, Eudonet Group appoints him to its Board of Directors as Chair.

Personal life

Apotheker is married to a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

-speaking Belgian.

References

External links

HP Executive Team Bios: Léo ApothekerForbes.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apotheker, Leo Living people 1953 births German chief executives 20th-century German Jews SAP SE people Hewlett-Packard people Schneider Electric people People from Aachen