SAP CTO bows out over 'incident' at company shindig

Board member offers apology for 'inappropriate' behavior

SAP CTO and executive board member Jürgen Müller is set to depart the German software corporation over an "incident" at a company event.

In a statement published this morning, SAP said its supervisory board had reached a "mutual agreement" with Müller to leave the company's executive board at the end of September.

In a prepared statement, Müller said: "I want to address an incident at a past company event where my behavior was inappropriate. I regret being inconsiderate and sincerely apologize to everyone affected. I recognize my behavior at that moment did not reflect our values at SAP. I take full responsibility and believe stepping down is best for the company. I wish the team continued success."

SAP is yet to respond to The Register's request for a more detailed explanation of the nature of the "incident."

"We thank Jürgen Müller for his significant accomplishments and wish him well in his future endeavors," said Pekka Ala-Pietilä, chairman of SAP's supervisory board.

CEO Christian Klein is set to assume responsibility for most of the area that Müller leads. The SAP Global Security & Cloud Compliance team will join the Customer Services & Delivery Board area under Thomas Saueressig, board member for customer services and delivery.

The CTO's departure comes as the company is a month away from its centerpiece technical event, TechEd, which takes place online in early October.

Müller joined SAP in 2013 as head of its Innovation Centre Network. Before that, he completed a PhD and worked as researcher and teaching assistant at the Hasso Plattner Institute, an educational institution established by SAP's co-founder.

SAP said Müller played a key role in establishing the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), a central part of the vendor's strategy to help customers build cloud-based applications and integrate services across their SAP landscape. ®