SAP Names Labs North America Managing Director

by Kelly Schwager

SAP Solidifies Leadership Position in the North American Market, Further Extends Global Ecosystem and Partner Group Leadership Team;

SAP AG today announced the appointment of Rami Branitzky as managing director of Labs North America. SAP also announced the appointment of S. Singh Mecker as senior vice president, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group, replacing Branitzky who previously held this role. With this move, SAP solidifies its leadership position in the North American market and further strengthens the global ecosystem leadership team.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, SAP Labs North America is a prominent player in Silicon Valley, leveraging the assets unique to Silicon Valley and the expansive U.S. and Canadian markets to create dynamic partnerships that foster collective innovation and drive strategic partnering, field support, and customer success. Over the past 10 years, SAP Labs North America has grown dramatically from 25 to more than 1,500 people in the United States alone.

To date, SAP Labs North America has contributed to major technical and product successes for SAP, such as the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform and enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), SAP xApps(TM) composite applications, and SAP solutions for RFID.

Branitzky Appointed Labs North America MD

As managing director, Branitzky will head SAP Labs North America strategy and operations, tapping Silicon Valley's rich culture of innovation and entrepreneurship to deliver increasing value to SAP's worldwide development organization and to SAP partners and customers in the United States and Canada.

Branitzky joined SAP following the acquisition of TopTier Software in 2001. He was an early member of the TopTier Software team, holding field and product leadership positions. Branitzky began his tenure at SAP as vice president, business development, in the global ecosystem and partner group. Since 2006, Branitzky served as senior vice president in charge of SAP global software solution partnerships. In these positions, Branitzky was instrumental in driving SAP ecosystem strategy and partnering practices. His many achievements include launching the "Powered by SAP NetWeaver" partner program, as well as the SAP Endorsed Business Solutions program.