Fall 2015 = #SAPtd and new SAP Mentors
Today is the first day of the fall season for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere (Spring for those in the Southern Hemisphere). Regardless of which hemisphere you find yourself, to all of us in the SAP world, this means the start of SAP TechEd season, and also the announcement of new members joining the SAP Mentor Program.
SAP Mentors are well-known in our community for sharing their knowledge, and for advocating the collective voice of the SAP ecosystem while keeping SAP relevant. The SAP Mentor Monday Webinars is a great example of how our top influencers are sharing relevant knowledge with the community. Check out the replay of “How to survive SAP TechEd – a seasoned attendee’s view” by SAP Mentor, Chris Kernaghan, for tips on how to prepare for SAP TechEd. I also recommend SAP Mentor, Tammy Powlas’ recap blog post of this event.
As the world turns, new SAP Mentors are added while other SAP Mentors join the SAP Mentor Alumni ranks. Please join me in thanking the following SAP Mentors for their years of contributions to the community:Prateek Raj Srivastava, Carsten Nitschke, Alex Andrenacci, Xumin Zhao, and Luke Marson. I wish you all well, and encourage you to remain strong advocates in the SAP community, like many others in our SAP Mentor Alumni group. You will always be celebrated members of this community and remain a part of the SAP Mentor family.
Welcome New SAP Mentors!
I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. Here are your new (one not so new) SAP Mentors:
Karin Tillotson, The Coca-Cola Company, USA
Karin is a returning SAP Mentor (actually, one of the very first SAP Mentors on SCN). As a SAP Mentor alumnus, she continued to be active with the America’s SAP User Group, and our community. Catch up with her at SAP TechEd this season! Learn more about Karin in her Blog It Forward post. Glad to see you back Karin!
Florian Henninger, FIS Informationssysteme, Germany
Florian is one of SCN’s most active members. He identifies himself as an “ABAP-Developer.” However, if you’re a regular visitor to SCN yourself, you’ll recognize his profile pic as he shares his vast SAP-knowledge in multiple different topic spaces. It’s no wonder he was also recognized as SCN Member of the Month July 2014. Welcome Florian! Have a wonderful SAP TechEd in Barcelona!
The SAP Mentor Magic Foundation
As in previous selection seasons, the SAP Mentor Magic Foundation has been our ‘lighthouse’ and its principles guided our assessment of candidates. This season, we received over 100 nominations from the community of SAP Mentor candidates. This is amazing, and challenged the Steering Committee during the selection process. The Steering Committee consists of Malin Liden, Martin Gillet, Phil Loewen, Tom Cenens, Tammy Powlas, Graham Robinson, Aslan Noghre-kar, Maria Farrales and myself. Thank you Steering Committee members! Because of your hard work, we’re able to add a couple more fantastic SAP Mentors to the group.
We are and will continue to look for this ‘magic’ in the SAP world that are not well-represented, and we plan to do this on an ongoing basis (e.g. keeping an eye on prospective-Mentors, while leaving the nomination process open year-round). Stay tuned for more news as we roll this out.
In the meantime, please help me congratulate our Fall 2015 SAP Mentors!
Congrats Florian Henninger and good to see Karin Tillotson wearing the Mentors shirt again (although I would say she never stopped wearing it ).
Only 2 new mentors from over 100 nominations?!? Wow.
Yes, congrats and welcome (back), Karin and Florian!
Have to agree with Custodio though: only 2 new mentors?!
That sends (whether intentional or not) a very strong message to the community: that there are no (more) people worthy of becoming a mentor, which is a very wrong signal IMHO (I know/nominated a few others myself, and meanwhile have discovered even more).
So please tell me Jason: are you going to add more people to the list later (very short term), or can we expect some more during fall and winter? The latter would be a shame, considering they can't go to SAPTeched as a mentor...
For now, I remain puzzled.
Hi Fred, Custodio,
Thanks for asking the question! It must seem strange that we would only have 2 new Mentors this season, compared to 20 in Spring. Let me try to be as transparent as I can, so that we can continue to celebrate our new Mentors. it was important for the Steering Committee to use the Mentor Magic principles and characteristics consistently in assessing and finally selecting new SAP Mentors. At the same time, we also considered how these nominated experts can help us with gaps in the Mentor Mix - how representative our SAP Mentor group was to SCN membership, to relationships with SAP, to geographical regions, to areas of expertise, industry and line of business. Gaps still exist (for example, I would love to see more Business Network-Ariba influencers or Concur influencers become Mentors), and we need to provide our community with a clearer picture or profile of the prospective-Mentors we need to keep the SAP Mentor community diverse and effective.
I'm ecstatic with the 22 new SAP Mentors joining the group this year, and we don't plan to add/announce any more this year. Some believe that as community membership grows each year, so should the number of SAP Mentors. I'm not convinced of this approach yet, and prefer to focus attention and support to the roughly 150 active SAP Mentors we have now.
Thank you for submitting your nominations - we rely on our SAP Mentors and community members to help us identify the best candidates, and we know you're putting your reputation on the line with each nomination. Your efforts have not gone to waste, and hopefully you won't have to keep submitting the same nomination each season. To be transparent again, we are building a 'watch list' of nominees we are keeping an eye on so that we can include past nominees when we go into a new round of selection. 😎
PLease let me know if there are any other questions, and I'll do my best to clarify. I truly hope we will celebrate the quality of individuals, rather than quantity of individuals. 🙂
Hello Jason,
Kudos on this and making this step and sticking to the decision.
good to see it
Ingo
Hi Ingo,
Thank you! We will continue to look for ways to add value to our Mentors and our community.
Jason
Just to clarify: I was not questioning anything. I was just surprised, that's all!
Anyway, thanks for being so transparent. And congrats again to Florian & Karin.
Cheers,
Custodio
HI Custodio,
thanks for being the first to comment! I would have added this explanation into the body of my blog post, but that would have made it too long. 🙂
Cheers,
Jason
Congratulations new Sap mentors!
Thanks Custódio, Fred and Jason for the comments.
Nice! Congratulations new mentors! Especially Florian Henninger - from Member of the Month, to moderator, to mentor. M&M&M. Laure would be so proud!
Congratulations Karin Tillotson and Florian Henninger
Another one of those times when you see the new Mentors and think 'Gosh, I thought they already were SAP Mentors'...
Welcome back, Karin Tillotson and Florian Henninger and we look forward to meeting/re-meeting you soon!
Sue
Congratulations to our new mentors Karin Tillotson and Florian Henninger 🙂
It's been a pleasure to serve!
Thank you Luke! Don't be surprised if we continue to loop you into HCM and related activities. 😉
You are more than welcome to include me... as an alumni I'm happy to continue to support the SAP Mentors and continue to support the community.
Congratulations, Karin and Florian!
I admit I had the same reaction as Sue, i.e. "weren't they already mentors?", but that was before I realized that Karin was on alumnus status and returning. I really did think Florian already was, too, based on his constant and significant contributions -- high time! I also had the same reaction as Custodio and Fred, i.e. "only two?" after twenty in the spring, but again, I understand and appreciate Jason's response to this question.
Well, if you're going to have two, these are two of the best!
Thank you for your understanding Matt! We are very happy with all the SAP Mentors we've added to the mix this year, and can't to work with everyone to keep SAP relevant.
Congrats Florian Henninger and Karin Tillotson ! Looking forward seeing you at TechEd (Jam Band 😎 ).
22 mentor in this year?! 😯
Gives to play soccer already kkkk
Congrats Florian Henninger and Karin Tillotson, I did not know them very well here in the community (I hope someday to be able to share experiences with you), but I wish you success! 😉
Ahhhh, use the seat belt 😛
Cheers,
Raphael Pacheco.
Congratulations 🙂
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Florian and Karin! Enjoy the TechEd season with the Mentors!