Bennett joins from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was Partner in Charge of the ERP and SAP Practices across Asia Pacific
Sydney, Australia — SAP today appointed Chris Bennett as its Chief Executive Officer for Australia and New Zealand. Chris will also sit on the board of SAP Asia Pacific as an Executive Vice President. He joins SAP from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he held four senior roles: Partner in Charge of the ERP Practice, the SAP Practice and the Application Outsourcing and ASP Practice across Asia Pacific, and Global Leader of SAP Methods and Tools. He replaces Anthony Harris who resigned on Thursday, April 27 to pursue opportunities outside of SAP.
Chris will join SAP in early June. Les Hayman, president and CEO, SAP Asia Pacific, will manage the Australian operations until Chris is on board.
“I am excited to be joining SAP as it is becomes a leader in the e-business marketplace through its mySAP.com initiative,” said Chris Bennett. “It is a rapidly growing and changing environment, but with SAP’s resources and flexibility, the company is certain to be as successful in e-business as it is in enterprise resource planning. Our number one priority over the coming year will be to assist our customers in their move into the e-economy. We have the products, the skills and the infrastructure to deliver, and I will make sure that we do.”
Chris started at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in ERP consulting in 1986. In his role as Partner in Charge of the ERP Practice for PwC Asia Pacific, Chris oversaw 2,000 consulting staff and 65 partners across 12 countries and coordinated the company’s ERP strategies. He also led the SAP Practice, supervising 1,400 employees involved in more than 130 implementations across the region last year.
Chris was also responsible for leading PwC’s Application Outsourcing initiative across the region. He established Solution Delivery Centres in Singapore and Melbourne and created the largest ASP offering in Asia Pacific through an arrangement with Telstra to offer ERP and CRM software over the internet.
In addition to his regional roles, Chris was the Global Leader for SAP Methods and Tools, heading a team to deliver web-based tools and methods across all 9,000 SAP practitioners at PwC around the world.
Prior to leading the ERP and SAP Practices at PwC, Chris was the project partner or architect on numerous major SAP implementations in Australia and across Asia Pacific, and has a background as an SAP consultant which stretches over 11 years.
