“After 15 years of leading Sybase, I want to take on a new challenge. The integration of Sybase into SAP is complete and the business is in great shape,” said Chen. “Combining the organizations made sense and I am pleased with the direction of the mobile and database business of Sybase within SAP. The Sybase assets are contributing significantly to SAP’s success and benefitting from technology such as SAP HANA as well as the global reach of the company. I leave knowing that what we built is in good hands.”

“John is a pioneer who contributed greatly to the enterprise mobility and database markets, and I am incredibly proud of what we have done together,” sad Dr. Vishal Sikka, member of the SAP Executive Board, Technology & Innovation. “We have brought massive scale to mobile and breakthrough innovation to the database market with SAP HANA and Sybase. With the best team in the world, we will continue to bring non-disruptive innovation and deliver the next gneration of enterprise software.”

“We thank John for his extraordinary leadership over the past few years,” said SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. “The acquisition and integration of Sybase is a best practice for driving growth and innovation. Together with John, we have expanded the Sybase business significantly since the acquisition. Today we are the market leader in mobility and the fastest growing database company in the industry. We respect John’s decision, we know that he will remain a friend of SAP and we wish him all the best for the future.”