Strategy & Innovation

Creating Europe's AI Moment – Now or Never

with Thomas Saueressig & Thomas Jarzombek & Markus Blume & Antonella Mei-Pochtler

Thursday 9 July 14:50 – 15:20 Tech Leaders Stage

About This Session

Description coming soon.

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Speakers

Thomas Saueressig

CCO and Member of the Executive Board · SAP SE

CCO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE

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Thomas Saueressig is a Member of the Executive Board and Chief Customer Officer of SAP SE. His board area, the Customer Value Group (CVG), brings together SAP’s go-to-market and delivery functions to help customers effectively drive their business transformation, fully leverage the benefits of AI, and build long-term customer value in the cloud. The CVG includes the company’s global and regional sales and customer engagement teams, which support customers in maximizing the value of their SAP investments and accelerating the adoption of AI. The organization also encompasses Customer Services, including Professional Services, Premium Engagements, Customer Innovation Services, and Customer Support. In addition, Saueressig is responsible for SAP’s cloud infrastructure, cloud operations, sovereign cloud portfolio, cloud lifecycle management, as well as security and compliance for SAP’s global customer base. Saueressig has a strong track record of delivering customer value. In his previous role, he led the Executive Board area Customer Services & Delivery, where he worked closely with customers to achieve business outcomes through innovation and end-to-end business transformation. Prior to that, as a Member of the Executive Board, he led SAP Product Engineering, driving the transformation of SAP’s entire application portfolio. This included cloud offerings, such as cloud operations, as well as the global SAP Labs network. Before being appointed Head of SAP Product Engineering, Saueressig served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Global Head of IT Services at SAP. As CIO, he was responsible for SAP’s IT strategy and its execution with a cloud-first approach. Under his leadership, the IT organization developed new business models and played a key role in advancing SAP’s own cloud transformation. Saueressig joined SAP in 2004 in consulting and subsequently held various international management positions with increasing responsibility. In 2016, he was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40” list. As global sponsor of the Business Women’s Network, SAP’s largest employee network, and the SAP Women in Tech initiative, Saueressig actively supports inclusion and equal opportunity in the workplace. He is also the Executive Sponsor of the Accessible Workplace Inclusion Network, which promotes accessibility and a more inclusive work environment within and beyond SAP. Saueressig holds a degree in Business Informatics from the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Mannheim and a joint Executive MBA from ESSEC Business School (France) and Mannheim Business School (Germany). Since April 2022, Saueressig has been a member of the Board of Directors of Nokia, where he currently serves as Vice Chair.
Thomas Jarzombek

Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation

Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation

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Thomas Jarzombek was born in Düsseldorf and has been active in politics for more than 25 years. He served as a member of the Düsseldorf City Council and as a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2009, he has been a Member of the German Bundestag. From 2013 to 2018, he acted as the spokesperson for the Digital Agenda of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Between 2018 and 2021, Thomas Jarzombek served as the Federal Government Coordinator for Aerospace, and from 2019 to 2021, as the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs’ Representative for the Digital Economy and Start-ups. Most recently, from 2021 to 2025, he was the spokesperson for Education and Research of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and a member of the Committee on Digital Affairs. Since May 2025, he has served as Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation.
Markus Blume

Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts

Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts

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Markus Blume has served as Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts since February 2022. Prior to this, he was Secretary General of the CSU from 2018 to 2022. He has been a member of the Bavarian State Parliament since 2008, representing the Munich-Ramersdorf constituency as a directly elected representative. A father of three, he lives in Munich. Before entering politics, Blume worked as a founder and board member of a medium-sized enterprise.
Antonella Mei-Pochtler

CEO and Executive Chairwoman · Pochtler Industrieholding

CEO and Executive Chairwoman of Pochtler Industrieholding

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Antonella is an Italian executive and multiple board member with many years of strategy consulting experience at BCG, where she became one of the youngest partners and a member of its global executive committee. Her work focus is in media, technology, and consumer goods. She was named amongst the top 25 consultants worldwide by Consulting Magazine and was honored with the Women Leaders in Consulting Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. From 2018 to 2022, she was Special Advisor to the Austrian Chancellor and headed the ThinkAustria strategy unit. She also co-chaired the Kofi Annan Award for Innovation in Africa. Today, she is CEO of iSi Group, Executive Vice Chairwoman of Pochtler Industrieholding and contributes her in-depth transformation expertise as non-executive director in international supervisory boards (Generali, Publicis, Westwing, and DEAG). Previously, amongst other positions, she was Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Wolford and an IFC-nominated director at the Ivorian company SIPRA. She is strongly engaged in the non-profit sector, among others as a Vice-President of the European Forum Alpbach (EFA) and co-founder of the Sovereign Europe Forum, board member at TUM Venture Labs and advisory board member of the Drucker Forum. She has been committed to equal opportunities in education for many years (Teach For All, Business@School, Phorms Schools) and has published essays on leadership and strategy (“Acupuncture for Management”). Antonella studied in Munich and Rome and has an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. She lives with her family in Vienna.