Daniela Stepping up as New Global Vice President Utilities to Master Challenges with Energy, Head and Heart

[Mel]

 

Today I have the privelige to introduce you to our new Global Vice President for the Industry Business Unit (IBU) Utilities, daniela.sellmann.

Starting in SAP Corporate Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility Daniela has more than 9 years of experience in various key account sales roles in Discrete Manufacturing, and presales positions within SAP Germany, Austria and the US.
In her last position as Head of Customer Advisory for Utilities she worked primarily with the German utility market and ecosystem before stepping into the global utility market.

In her new role, Daniela, together with her team, will be responsible for the Utilities Go-to-Market, executing the new Utilities Strategy as well as strong alignment with all Utilities stakeholders.

Now I'm happy to invite you to go through the following questions to get to know her a bit better and get a look behind the scenes:

1. Daniela, you have more than 9 years of experience in different sales roles – could you please explain to us why you decided to join the Industry Business Unit (IBU) Utilities?After working in the Industry Account Executive role in the discrete manufacturing and automotive industry I took over responsibility for the Industry Customer Advisory Team for Utilities in Germany. Within that role, my team and I were responsible for the technical and specialized presales of SAP’s utilities portfolio, covering the utilities industry processes and regulations of our German utilities customers. As our presales team closely aligns with the IBU Utilities to discuss current customer-specific requirements and also future customer needs, I had the opportunity to get more insight into our global industry solution and portfolio management. The IBU Utilities is the SAP hub for utilities industry know-how and in addition to solution and portfolio management, is also responsible for the global GTM of SAP’s Utilities portfolio. Looking at the energy transition and energy being the engine for our modern living, I cannot imagine a more relevant or important place to be in right now, driving change and navigating through upcoming challenges.


2. Female, 31 years old – How important is diversity for you?
   Diversity is a necessity, not nice to have nor just a quota.
   Albert Einstein’s said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
   And I agree! I see that great results come from teams with diverse backgrounds, thus, it’s my inherent task as a leader to foster a diverse working environment to enable the team to deliver outstanding results as the mix of skills, experience levels, backgrounds allow for new ways of approaching and resolving problems. Empowering people to speak up and share different opinions and thereby having a constructive debate subsequently leads to different results.
   Looking at the gender gap, which is just one facet of diversity, in our industry, I can say: women deserve a seat at the table!


3. Where do you see Utilities in 2 years – what journey lies ahead of us?
   Utilities have a great opportunity to reinvent themselves. They do not only play a crucial role in the energy transition, but also in the way end customers consume and economize energy. Customer experience and the request for additional, smart services from end customers will drive competition and innovation amongst utilities. Utilities therefore, need to leverage even more technologies to serve rising market and customer demands to optimize energy and water consumption in a sustainable and resource-preserving way. SAP will enable our utilities using our technology to master all of the changes and challenges lying ahead of them.


4. If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would that person be?
   Angela Merkel.
   Whatever one may think of her politics, achievements, decisions she took while in office, she still was the only woman to remain in power for 16 consequent years and that alone is extremely impressive, looking at the shark tank surrounding her in that position. Also the burden she must have carried for many years in that role is very hard to imagine. She is seen as a role model for many people, not just women, internationally - so Mrs. Merkel if you are reading this, I would really like to have a coffee with you 😉


5. Last but not least three quick "This or That" questions:
   
   
   
   • Early bird or Night owl?              Early Bird.
   
   
   • Phone call or text message?      Phone Call.
   
   
   • Head Person or Heart Person?   I always bring both thing.
   
   
   
   

Thank you Daniela for giving us some first insights and we are looking forward to support together with you our customers on their digital transformation journey with SAP.

Best regards

Melanie Fiolka
Marketing & Communications, IBU Utilities

Follow me on LinkedIn : me@LinkedIn
Visit our SAP for Utilities Community page.