SAP managing director, A/NZ, John Ruthven.
SAP has appointed John Ruthven as president and managing director for SAP Australia and New Zealand.
As the leader of the SAP A/NZ business, Ruthven is responsible for all customer operations across the two countries, helping organisations of all sizes and across 25 industries to simplify their operations and equip for the increasingly digital and global economy.
Ruthven succeeds Andrew Barkla, who after delivering nearly three years of growth, will depart SAP to take on a new leadership role outside the industry.
Barkla will continue to advise the SAP Australia and New Zealand business during a transition period.
Ruthven joined SAP in January 2014 as the regional lead for Cloud and line of business solutions across the SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region.
Ruthven transitioned to chief operating officer for SAP A/NZ in August 2014, where he led SAP’s local presales, industry value engineering and sales operations teams.
He has previously held roles including, senior vice president of international sales at Zuora and general manager of emerging markets at CA Technologies.
Ruthven will also join the SAP APJ senior executive team, reporting to regional President Adaire Fox-Martin.
SAP president, Asia Pacific Japan, Adaire Fox-Martin, said the company had achieved spectacular growth in Australia and New Zealand over the past year.
“This has been fuelled by local organisations’ desire to innovate and push forward as global leaders in their industry through digital transformation, as well as by a local SAP team with a relentless focus on the customer," she said.
"We thank Andrew Barkla for his leadership in this transformative phase for SAP and look forward to John’s proven ability to scale business outcomes for our customers.”
Ruthven said organisations in Australia and New Zealand understood they needed to transform digitally to be on the right side of disruption.
“With our customers and partners, we are enjoying some of the richest collaboration in the market and delivering outcomes that help our customers run better and run simple in the digital age. It is a very exciting time to be with SAP.”
