Gergi Abboud is responsible for developing the company’s in-country presence and growth strategy, as well as sales, marketing and overall operations for the Middle East South Region including; UAE, Oman, Qatar, Egypt & Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan, Palestine and Yemen. In 2018 Abboud was acknowledged by Arabian Business as one of the top 100 Arab Achievers in the Middle East.
The senior vice president has built strong teams across geographies, industries and segments, elevating the SAP brand through customer success. Under his leadership, SAP’s growth strategy included establishing presence, building capacity, opening new offices and contributing significantly to the company’s growth in MENA region.
He brings with him over 18 years of experience in working with various IT multinationals in the Middle East and Africa region.
In October 2018, Abboud told Arabian Business that SAP is seeing growth despite, and partly because of, the plunge in oil prices, which have driven upward demand for the company’s expertise and services across multiple sectors.
“You’ve got a massive drive of efficiency in the oil and gas sector – when the oil price in 2014 went down, a lot of oil and gas companies in our part of the world took the decision to be much more efficient and optimised when they had their challenges,” he said.
A 2017 study by SAP and Oxford Economics Digital Transformation Executive found that over 84 percent of organisations saw digital transformation as critical and that more than three-quarters of the Middle East and North Africa’s digital-leading organisations would invest in big data and the IoT in 2018 to drive disruptive business competitiveness.
However the report also found that only three percent of organisations have completed digital transformation. Abboud believes that while most of SAP’s customers see the value in digital transformation, they’re figuring out how to minimise and manage risk, and identify the value out of digital investments.
“And that is why there’s confusion sometimes, because they’re figuring out: do I start with digital transformation or business transformation?” Abboud said.
Abboud started his career with Sun Microsystems as a systems engineer and quickly progressed to take on the roles of enterprise sales manager and sales lead for the company’s large accounts. He also held the position of regional sales manager for Cisco in Qatar, where he built the company’s enterprise business, led the public-sector team, and grew the commercial business in Qatar, Oman and Afghanistan.
He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut and completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.
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