SAP America's chief financial officer, John Milana, has resigned to join an e-commerce, business-to-business procurement company, SAP announced yesterday.
The departure comes just over a month after SAP announced a new incentive plan designed to stanch defections from its executive suite. The plan, involving a stock-option program, will only have value if the growth in SAP's preferred shares exceeds the performance of a reference index. [See "SAP Introduces Stock Plan, Names New U.S. Execs," Dec. 9, 1999.]It's not the first time that SAP has seen a defection even after boosting an employee incentive plan. In 1998 SAP introduced a Stock Appreciation Rights Program, which wasn't enough to stop both Chief Executive Officer Paul Wahl and President Jeremy Coote from leaving. Both Coote and Wahl last year ended up at Siebel Systems Inc., which also hired more than 20 other SAP employees.
SAP is currently in litigation against Siebel, accusing the company of trying to harm its business by hiring away employees. Siebel denies the allegations.
Neither Milana nor SAP officials could be reached for comment immediately.
SAP America Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG of Germany, is located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and can be reached at +1-610-661-1000, or at http://www.sap.com.