SAP Champions & SAP Mentors Spotlight Interviews

SAP Champions are top contributors to the SAP Community serving as distinguished leaders and upholding community ideals and spirit. Through their insights and expertise, SAP Champions are dedicated to helping members maximize their SAP community experience.

Marssel Vilaça, SAP Champion and Senior Financial Accounting and Controlling (FICO) Consultant at NIMBL, Techedge Group, shares his experiences related to the rise of hybrid and remote work and the importance of work-life balance. It was great to catch-up with Marssel to learn how he combines his professional expertise with the decision to make fitness and a healthy lifestyle a priority.

About Marssel Vilaça | Spotlight Interview

Learn how Ruthvik Chowdary, SAP Champion, SAP Process Automation Influencers team member, and Senior SAP Consultant at Deloitte, shares his knowledge through his YouTube channel, writing 50+ blogs, and being an SAP Community speaker, volunteer, and organizer. Take a look at his Spotlight Interview to find out how and why he goes above and beyond in all of his activities!

About Ruthvik Chowdary | Spotlight Interview

Check out this Spotlight about Dell Stinnett-Christy, SAP Champion and Associate Director in the Enterprise Data & Analytics Practice at Protiviti. She’s an expert in designing data structures and writing computer programs, as well as an active board member for The Handweavers Guild of America. Dell finds many rewards in sharing logical and creative outcomes for clients and community members which you can read more about in her Spotlight Interview.

About Dell Stinnett-Christy | Spotlight Interview

Bärbel Winkler, SAP Champion and System Analyst at Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, continually goes above and beyond what is asked of her. She spends her free time volunteering at Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Garden where she is able to give tours and share her knowledge. We were lucky enough to sit down with her in the midst of her busy schedule to learn more about her career journey and expertise with SAP ABAP development projects.

Learn more about David Ruiz Badia, SAP Champion (former SAP Mentor) and SAP Architect at the Enel Group, who focuses on the importance of energy within a community and throughout society as a whole. He also expands on his expertise in SAP User Experience (UX) and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), as well as with his other passions.

About David Ruiz Badia | Spotlight Interview

Purpose for organizations revolves around a set of actions which can lead to successful outcomes on many levels relating to employees, customers, partners, and stakeholders. At times people may be asked to do a “task” and they know what to do or how to do it, but they don’t understand “why” it is being asked, so they may not buy into it or achieve the best results. For Simha Magal, Georgia State University MSIS Program Director & Professor, author, SAP Champion, SAP Mentor Alumnus, and entrepreneur, teaching and sharing the “why” comes very naturally.

About Simha Magal | Spotlight Interview

Learn more about the current and future state of SAP Workflow Management with Susan, SAP Workflow developer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. She provides insights on how the business environment and technologies can help allocate employees and other resources intelligently.

About Susan Keohan | Spotlight Interview & Video

Tune into a podcast on how Christian, a Professor for Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, Germany, moved from the world of consulting to academia as well as from SAP Mentor to SAP Champion. Learn how he uses the SAP Community to help educate his students.

Check out this Spotlight where Andreas shares his career journey and expertise including ABAP and .NET which inspires him to speak at many SAP events, write numerous blogs, and share relevant plug-ins for the community. In addition, learn about his adventures traveling and his passion for multiple languages.

SAP Mentors are top influencers representing customers, partners, and consultants. They provide feedback on SAP technologies and strategies by participating in a global advocacy program that recognizes exceptional, high-value members of the larger SAP ecosystem. As experts specializing in one or more SAP products or services, they boast deep industry-specific, line of business, or technology knowledge. SAP Mentors are collaborative by nature with excellent communications skills and a passion to share, educate, and influence.

Geert-Jan Klaps, SAP Mentor and Innovation Architect at TheValueChain NV, talks about his experience with goal setting and how it got him on the right track. Read his Spotlight Interview to learn more about how he found inspiration from a personal development coach to get started on his personal health and mindset journey.

About Geert-Jan Klaps | Spotlight Interview

Check out this Spotlight to learn more about Chris Paine, Chief HR Geek and Head of Technology and Innovation at Discovery Consulting, who lives by the principles of turning empathy into action. He touches on his time spent as a volunteer Assistant Scout Leader in Australia, along with elaborating on his passion for the Human Experience Management (HXM) space.

About Chris Paine | Spotlight Interview

Whether it’s co-hosting the podcast “TechForGood” or engaging communities both locally and around the world, Chris Kernaghan, SAP Mentor and Chief Product Officer at Centiq, tries to look at things in a different perspective. Whenever he has free time, he enjoys hacking and tinkering with technology to see what he can discover.

About Chris Kernaghan | Spotlight Interview

When we caught up with Henrik Wagner, SAP Mentor and SVP at Lemongrass Consulting, he shared with us his overall brand and life philosophy, as well as his insights on digital transformation and enterprise data management strategies.

About Henrik Wagner | Spotlight Interview

For experts like Oliver Schreiber, SAP Mentor, entrepreneur, co-founder of Adamant Lane AG and founder of OSconomy GmbH turning BIG ideas, such as digital supply chain (DSC) optimization, into practical solutions is a part of his daily activities, with an eye on short-term value and impact, and an even longer-term outlook.

About Oliver Schreiber | Spotlight Interview

Appreciated the opportunity to sync with Tobias Trapp, SAP Mentor, Enterprise Architect at AOK Systems GmbH, and SAP Press Author, who has put into practice the power of mindfulness and meditation to help make social and professional contributions in an ever-increasing connected world. He has taken this approach amidst his professional expertise which includes business process optimization, business rules management, SAP ABAP, SAP S/4HANA, SAPUI5, and integration.

About Tobias Trapp | Spotlight Interview

Krishna Kishor Kammaje, SAP Mentor, Instructor, SAP Press Author, and SAP application architect at Convergent IS, has a time-tested track record of addressing the user experience. His expertise is centered around his passion for SAP Fiori, SAP UI5, SAP ABAP, SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), and many other technologies to develop and execute successful digital transformation initiatives.

About Krishna Kishor Kammaje | Spotlight Interview

Enjoyed learning from Simon To, SAP Mentor and Senior Business Intelligence Systems Analyst at Flowserve, who shared his professional interests around business analytics, intelligent technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence) as well as how he has prioritized his volunteer time with groups such as the Boy Scouts and as an Emergency Responder.

About Simon To | Spotlight Interview

Caught up with Eduardo Chagas, SAP Mentor, SAP Transportation Management Consultant, Founder and SAP Instructor at SeInspire. He has been at the forefront of helping companies with all aspects of the digital supply chain including seeking sources of supplies (and/or alternative materials) at accelerated speeds. He shared his appreciation for contributing to the SAP Community both in Brazil and around the world both as an expert and for a greater purpose: to learn.

About Eduardo Chagas | Spotlight Interview

In our recent conversation with Daniel Graversen, SAP Integration Expert and Product Owner at Figaf and SAP Mentor, he shared many insights on his professional journey and passion to teach SAP integration and process optimization, as well as how he helps organizations save time with new integrations techniques which are impactful to business outcomes.

About Daniel Graversen | Spotlight Interview

The opportunity to learn from Leonardo De Araujo, SAP Mentor and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Beyond Technologies, who sees first-hand the importance of reducing technical debt, and as a priority, focuses on the business value and outcomes. His journey has helped many organizations reduce (or eliminate) large custom code debt, and at the same time, it was great to find out about his views on maintaining a work-life balance as an avid biker.

About Leonardo Araujo | Spotlight Interview

For Ankur Godre, Customer Experience (CX) Practice Head & Principal Architect at Notion Edge and SAP Mentor, he sees first-hand the importance of balancing the human experience and technology in all interactions with customers. In an increasingly automated world, finding a balance between technology driven by the human experience is critical to achieve the best business outcomes.

About Ankur Godre | Spotlight Interview

Abdulbasit Gulsen, SAP Technology Architect, SAP Mentor, and founder of AG Information Systems and Consulting, continues to demonstrate the “pay it forward” approach in helping the SAP Community grow. We caught up with him to learn about his insights and acclaimed book, “100 Things You Should Know About ABAP Workbench?”.

About Abdulbasit Gulsen | Spotlight Interview

Excellent insights from Martin Fischer, Business Manager & SAP Portfolio Manager at BridgingIT and SAP Mentor, who developed a mindset early in his career to explore “how things work” and take a more holistic approach. His professional journey has helped him become an expert in turning data into value, building value chains; innovating with industry best practices; and delivering impactful business outcomes.

About Martin Fischer | Spotlight Interview

When we connected with Tamas Szirtes, Group Innovation Director at SOA PEOPLE and SAP Mentor, he shared insights on his professional journey, SAP Sustainability, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and how he has placed himself at a variety of intersection points to connect with the SAP Community to both share knowledge and learn.

About Tamas Szirtes | Spotlight Interview

Robert Eijpe, Strategic Enterprise Architect, SAP Mentor, Speaker, Teacher, and SAP UX expert, has dedicated his professional journey to striking a balance between business processes becoming intelligent and putting the outcome into focus. Learn about his co-authoring of the SAP Press book “Applying Real-World BPM in an SAP environment,” and his work with market leading organizations. 

About Robert Eijpe | Spotlight Interview

Find out how Robin Van Het Hof, SAP Experience magician, proprietor at Qualiture, and SAP Mentor, encourages co-teaming to achieve high quality designs and development in complex business environments. His expertise includes a range of SAP technologies: SAP Business Technology Platform, UI5, Mobile Services, and many programming languages.

About Robin Van Het Hof | Spotlight Interview

SAP Mentor, Frank Schuler, was joined by Irfan Khan, President, SAP HANA, Database & Analytics to discuss the importance of ensuring a single source of truth for all data across applications, both on-premise and in the cloud, which is of paramount importance to most organizations. Together they shared a variety of observations on achieving data value with data intelligence. 

About Frank Schuler | Spotlight Interview & Video

Engaging successful role models such as Karen Rodrigues, an SAP Mentor, SAP Tax Declaration Framework (TDF) and Advanced Compliance Reporting (ACR) expert, Founder at SeInspire, sparked a conversation on a variety of topics spanning business, IT, and community service.

About Karen Rodrigues | Spotlight Interview

Explore how Ronald, SAP Mentor, Chief Innovation Officer at Interdobs, and Principle BI Consultant, utilizes tinkering as a way to explore, experiment, collaborate, and assess the potential for innovation. Tinkering helps him dissect problems and come up with workable solutions.

About Ronald Konijnenburg | Spotlight Interview

Learn about Graham's career journey and how he started with a background in IT infrastructure that evolved into becoming a solution architect with a broad range of skills including working with UI’s (user interfaces), mobile solutions, web services, email gateways, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP Workflow Management, and SAP ABAP.

About Graham Robinson | Spotlight Interview

Getting deeper on business analytics has been a long-time passion of SAP Mentor, Derek Loranca, who has a track-record of helping colleagues, peers, community members, and students gain insights into how to uncover and act on real-time data.

About Derek Loranca | Spotlight Interview

Catch up with Paul Hardy, SAP ABAP Developer at HeidelbergCement. In this Spotlight interview he shares some of the challenges, opportunities, and positive choices that have contributed to his success as a developer, author, and mentor.

About Paul Hardy | Spotlight Interview

Check out how international speaker and co-author Heather Hill applies her passion for delivering business intelligence and analytics initiatives to enable winning teams, empower women and drive diverse group of leaders through her coaching solutions.

About Heather Hill | Spotlight Interview

SAP Mentor Danielle Larocca was joined by Jill Popelka, President of SAP SuccessFactors, and Becky Doyle, Global VP Product Support People, to discuss SuccessFactors and the growing importance of employee empowerment in the workforce. Learn more about embracing digital transformation and creating an adaptable workforce.

About Danielle Larocca | Spotlight Interview & Video

Find out how SAP Mentor, Karin Tillotson combines personal and professional interests including hiking, encouraging women in technology, sharing insights on diversity in the workplace, or pursuing professional interests such as Data Archiving and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM).

About Karin Tillotson | Spotlight Interview

Learn from Peter Langner, Managing Director at ADventas Consulting GmbH and SAP Mentor, who is a true connector. Throughout his life, Peter has been inspired to solve the challenges faced by those around him. Peter has been able to address complex solutions for customers’ SAP S/4HANA migrations and create a Special Interest Group for SAP Global Trade Management.

About Peter Langner | Spotlight Interview

Alisdair Templeton, Ethan Jewett, and Wouter Lemaire join forces with Peter Muessig and Stefan Beck to discuss SAPUI5 and their journey in creating its advantageous elements. Learn more about the new web components, framework, upskilling, TypeScript, libraries, and adoption resources that change the way user interfaces are developed and handled.

Spotlight Interview & Video (Part 1)

Staying curious can add value to both a personal and professional journey. Learn about how Tom, co-owner and technical lead of Nessi Tech NV based in Belgium, appreciates the importance of leading by example and not settling for the status quo. He applies these standards in his own journey and in addressing a broad range of customer requirements including SAP S/4HANA, scaling data models, and virtual work environments.

About Tom Cenens | Spotlight Interview

Tomas Krojzl, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and SAP Mentor, made a major career bet on the SAP HANA database and combined it with other areas of interest. This decision has become a cornerstone of his success today. From Data Relocation Management to Multi-Cloud Infrastructure and Digital Center Readiness, learn about how Tomas has been at the forefront of addressing complex IT and business challenges.

About Tomas Krojzl | Spotlight Interview 

To reflect on how to take advantage of SAP and SAP Community learning resources, Max Wessel, EVP & Chief Learning Officer at SAP, caught up with Tammy Powlas, Senior Business Analyst at Fairfax Water and SAP Mentor, to discuss what role learning has played in her life, and how she has furthered her knowledge through the SAP Community.

About Tammy Powlas | Spotlight Interview & Video