SAP has announced the appointment of Simon Davies as regional president for the newly established Asia Pacific division, with immediate effect.

Based in Singapore, Davies will take the helm of SAP’s operations across the region, overseeing strategy, sales, services, partnerships, and profitability.

Davies’ leadership will extend across SAP’s market units in Australia and New Zealand, Greater China, India, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia, encompassing over 31,000 employees in 78 offices.

His predecessor, Paul Marriott, is stepping down after five years to relocate to Europe for family reasons.

Bringing a wealth of experience to a high-growth market

With a career spanning 25 years in enterprise technology across APAC, Davies is no stranger to the region’s rapidly evolving business landscape. He has played pivotal roles at some of the most prominent software firms, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle.

Most recently, he was senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at Splunk, where he led the company’s growth for over three years.

Davies also holds board positions in several pre-IPO technology firms and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, underscoring his deep expertise in corporate leadership and governance.

A future built on Cloud, AI, and customer success

Manos Raptopoulos, SAP’s chief revenue officer for APAC, EMEA, and MEE, highlighted Davies’ extensive experience in high-growth markets and his ability to build diverse, high-performing teams.

“Our next chapter is being fuelled by accelerated cloud and AI innovation, underpinned by our purpose, our people, and our partnerships,” Raptopoulos said.

“Simon combines experience in Asia’s fast-growth, innovation-hungry markets with proven expertise in building high-performance, diverse, and inclusive teams. I’m confident that, under Simon, SAP APAC will build on the tremendous momentum established during Paul’s leadership and continue to be a catalyst for innovation and supporting customer success.”

Davies himself is eager to embrace the challenge, recognising the pivotal role SAP plays in enabling businesses to navigate digital transformation.

“I’m very excited for this new chapter to begin. Across Asia Pacific and Japan, we see forward-thinking businesses accelerating strategic transformation supported by SAP,” Davies said.

“Establishing a solid foundation in the cloud and leveraging business data is the gateway to exploring new avenues of growth in areas like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and sustainability.”

Strengthening SAP’s influence in the region

SAP is deeply embedded in the APAC business ecosystem, powering the digital backbone of industry leaders such as NEC Corporation, Coles Group, Wipro, Fujitsu Limited, Shiseido, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, Himalaya, Cochlear, and Japan Airlines.

As enterprises increasingly prioritise cloud adoption, data-driven decision-making, and sustainable innovation, Davies’ leadership is expected to be instrumental in steering growth in a region known for its fast-paced evolution.

For over five decades, SAP has been at the forefront of enterprise technology, helping organisations optimise business-critical functions across finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience.

With an emphasis on artificial intelligence and cloud computing, SAP said it will continue to shape the future of digital business transformation.