Short Bio

Key Milestones of the Resume:

Prof. Alexander Zeier, from 2006 to 2012, was the lead of Prof. Hasso Plattner´s research project “HANA” at the Hasso Plattner Institute. The HANA Technology laid the foundation for the product S/4HANA, launched in 2015 by SAP AG. As Co-Inventor of the HANA Technology, he published the book on “In-Memory Data Management” with Prof. Hasso Plattner.
From 2012 to 2023, as Global Managing Director / CTO of the SAP Business Group at Accenture, he provided strategic advice to C-Level executives on SAP Modernization to S/4HANA and Cloud Transformation Programs. He was the Founder and Director of the Accenture Innovation Center for SAP HANA & Global HANA CoE. His team spearheaded or offered support for a multitude of projects with global leading experts. This includes active involvement in over 150 S/4HANA projects, the completion of over 100 S/4HANA roadmaps, and the completion of more than 500 HANA projects. A new enterprise cloud architecture “Digital Cloud Coupling” was developed by him in collaboration with the leading cloud providers. This architecture allows agile implementation of Cloud and GenAI services parallel to a step-by-step S/4HANA transformation, shortening the transformation process by up to 50%. This patented architecture has been successfully implemented across various global clients.
Since 2013, as the first honorary Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, he has been focusing on SAP, Cloud, and Generative AI.
Since 2020, he has been a Co-Founder and Board Member of the Cloud Academy and Open Enterprise Cloud Initiative of Google Cloud, Accenture, and Otto-von-Guericke University.  

 

Please find below the complete biography in sequential order:

  • Professor Dr. Alexander Zeier graduated from the University of Wuerzburg in Business Management (Dipl-Kfm./MBA) and successfully completed his studies in Information Technology at the Technical University He worked for two years as a strategic IT Consultant.
  • He earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management Systems from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg between 1998 and 2002. He pursued this degree at the Information Systems Department under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Peter Mertens on  “Differentiation of Standard Application Software for Supply Chain Management Focused on Company Types and Industries in Especial Consideration of SAP APO”
  • After this he worked three years as Product Manager for SCM Software and Director for Strategic Projects at SAP AG, before he joined Hasso-Plattner-Institute in 2006 as Deputy of Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner for the Group “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts” (EPIC).
    In April 2006 start of the research project “HANA”, hiring all core team members, project lead, and was the key driver of the development of In-Memory Technology, which resulted in SAP HANA, the basis of S/4HANA, launched in 2015 by SAP AG.
    Co-author with Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner of the book “In-Memory Data Management – An Inflection Point for Enterprise Applications” (2011). Extended version in 2012 focusing on innovative In-Memory Applications Development (“In-Memory Data Management – Technology and Applications”).
    As a Co-Inventor, number of patents granted (e.g. US9626421B2, US8601038B2, US9542424B2, US8756686B2) regarding In-Memory Technology and Applications with Prof Dr. Hasso Plattner and the HANA team.
  • 2006-2012, he served as  Executive Director of the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation Europe.
  • 03/2007-08/2012 Project Principal of the Design Thinking collaboration and joint projects at d.school with Prof. Larry Leifer and Prof. Terry Winograd e.g., on global distributed Design Class ME310 and several Design Research Projects.
  • From 05/2009-08/2012 Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 03/2012-08/2012 in residence. Guest talks and joint research in the area of innovative Enterprise Applications, Supply Chain, and Business Process Optimizations leveraging In-Memory Technology/SAP HANA. 
  • From 2012 to 2023 IT- Senior Executive at Accenture:
    CTO of SAP Business Group for the last 7 years, which consists of over 85,000 skilled SAP professionals at Accenture globally. Primary role was to advise C-Level Executives of Accenture’s 200+ Diamond clients worldwide to design and implement market-leading, technology-led innovations leveraging, e.g., SAP HANA as a Data Platform, S/4HANA as a lean Digital Core, coupled with disruptive cloud-native applications for custom extensions.
    Development of Digital Cloud Coupling, a patent-granted, flexible, and resilient Composable Enterprise Architecture (Ref. Gartner) that gives companies the agility to continuously innovate on MS Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, SAP Cloud (BTP), and open-source multi-cloud solutions.
    Founder and Director of the Accenture Innovation Center for SAP HANA & Global HANA CoE, active involvement in over 150 S/4HANA projects, completion of over 100 S/4HANA roadmaps, and the completion of more than 500 HANA projects over 11 years.
    Following the market launch of S/4HANA in 2015, the role expanded to Global Managing Director for HANA-related Services combined with the latest cloud technologies. Over the years, his line of business has grown into a multi-billion dollar revenue operation.

    Over the years, various additional responsibilities have been added:
    • First Cloud Fellow of Accenture: Chief Cloud Advisor for C-Level Executives (3 years).
    • Master Technical Architect; Defining Technology Strategy with C-Level, technical responsibility
    for particularly complex, innovative, and large Accenture projects (10 years).
    • Board Member of MTA: Establishment of novel enterprise architectures and global quality standards, classification of Accenture`s architects based on their skills (3 years).
    • Selective QA Director (2 years).

    Joined Accenture in Sept. 2012 as Global Managing Director In-Memory Solutions (incl. SAP HANA) and as CTO for Platforms.

  • In June 2013 appointed as first honorary Professor at the faculty of Computer Science at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, focusing on In-Memory & Cloud Technology and Applications. Lectures also focus on topics and skills for Cloud Transformation, new lean Digital Core in S/4 HANA combined with a Composable Architecture to realize a Composable Enterprise.
    2020 founding and board member of the Cloud Academy and Open Enterprise Cloud Initiative of Google Cloud, Accenture, and Otto-von-Guericke University.

He has over 30 years of experience with SAP/IT systems. He began working with SAP R/3 Version 1.2 in 1992, followed by SAP R/3/SAP ERP in the late 90s, and SAP SCM (including SAP APO). He has 15 years of experience with HANA, SAP HANA, S4HANA, and 10 years of experience with Cloud Transformation.

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