Dr Matthias Heiden, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the SAF-Holland Group, aims to terminate his contract of service at the end of 2020 at the latest as he will pursue a new professional challenge.
Dr Heiden has been a member of the Group Management Board of SAF-Holland since 1 March 2017 and is responsible for the areas of Finance, Accounting and Controlling, Internal Audit, IT, Legal and Compliance, Human Resources, Corporate Social Responsibility as well as Investor Relations and Corporate Communications.
The Board of Directors has started a selection process to identify a suitable successor for Dr. Heiden. Until his departure – at the latest by the end of 2020 – Dr Heiden will continue to fully perform his duties. It is possible that an earlier termination date will be agreed on by mutual consent.
“We respect the decision of Dr. Heiden,” said SAF-Holland Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Martin Kleinschmitt.
“In the name of the entire board, I would like to express our gratitude already at this point for the excellent, trusting and successful cooperation to date and his valuable contributions to the company,” he said.
Enterprise software company, Software AG, has appointed Dr Heiden as its new CFO.
Dr. Heiden will be taking over from Arnd Zinnhardt, who will step down after 18 years in the role. Dr. Heiden will join Software AG and assume the role of CFO and Member of the Executive Board officially after a transition period is completed.
Before joining SAF-Holland, Dr. Heiden spent 12 years with SAP SE in a range of senior leadership roles, including CFO SAP Deutschland and SAP Head of Global Treasury. His final role with SAP was that of Regional CFO for Middle and Eastern Europe, where he was a member of both SAP’s Global and European Leadership teams overseeing significant revenue streams across all lines of business. While at SAP, he was a key player in its transformation to a subscription and cloud-based business model and was co-sponsor of SAP’s own finance transformation program, 'Finance Run Better Together'.
“Joining Software AG at this stage in its transformation journey is very exciting,” said Dr Heiden. “Its financial strength and innovation agenda are compelling. I look forward to taking the company and its finance function to the next level in executing the Helix transformation agenda in the coming years.”