Elections also bring fresh perspectives to leadership, preventing stagnation and enabling the organisation to adapt to changing needs. Moreover, they uphold legal and regulatory requirements, reinforcing the organisation’s legitimacy and credibility. By promoting fairness and inclusivity, regular elections not only strengthen trust but also ensure the organisation remains dynamic, member-focused and effective in achieving its goals.
Your Candidates
Dipti Jakhodia
Bio to follow soon. Please view Nomination Form for further information
Vincent Petit
My career has been focused from the start on Project and Programme management of ERP systems but found my niche in the Automotive industry over 20 years ago rolling out ERP systems in many different countries across the world for a software vendor.
12 years ago, I joined Inchcape (Largest independent automotive distributor in the world) and moved away from the software vendor side to the customer side. This is where my journey with SAP started. I became ERP & Finance Systems IT Director and took over the responsibility of Inchcape's SAP landscape and strategy. I created an inhouse SAP Practice to insource our SAP capability, leading a team of 400 SAP specialists mostly based in Colombia and the Philippines. At the same time, we decided to modernise our SAP estate by moving to the Cloud and became a very early adopter of Rise with SAP. All this while continuing to roll out our SAP solutions worldwide with over 50 successful implementations over the last 4 years (including ECC, Success Factors, EWM, Concur etc...)
Recently, I moved away from the SAP delivery and became Global ERP Transformation Director, responsible for leading the strategic planning and vision of Inchcape's future global ERP transformation and templates.
In recent years, and thanks to speaking opportunities given to me by the UKISUG and by SAP, I have become a regular speaker at various User Group and SAP events (in the UK, Europe and Americas). I have also spent a lot of time coaching SAP customers embarking on a similar journey than Inchcape (Rise with SAP, Insourcing SAP capabilities etc...) which I continue to find extremely fulfilling. The User Group and its community has been an incredible source of information, help and guidance over the years and I am now keen to help, share my experience and try to make a difference as a member of the Board.
Russell Smith
A little about me before you (maybe) read my formal application for this amazing opportunity.
As Technology Lead on one of the largest S/4HANA business transformations in Europe with AstraZeneca it has really sharpened my focus on SAP as a vendor (the good, the bad, and you can guess the rest) and UKISUG as a fabulous organisation and community creator. This community is utterly amazing and many of you have provided sage advice and experiences saving me from pitfalls over the years.
Now is the time for me to ask you to believe in me and my desire to give something back to this user group. I will bring a strong mix of SAP experience from commercial negotiations, through sales, co-development of products, into the heady maelstrom that is implementation, and the (relative) calm of steady state support. I also offer non-SAP skillsets in areas including compliance, legal, human resources and finance as well as being knowledgeable in both Oracle and Workday ERP as a comparator/balance to SAP.
AstraZeneca remains a huge contributor to, and supporter of, UKISUG, and it has been an absolute pleasure standing on stage at the last two keynotes sharing with you all the AstraZeneca journey so far (warts and all). I proudly lead AZ’s participation in the user group as well as owning our global relationship with SAP – granting me unique insights and opportunities to influence right up to SAP board level. Within AstraZeneca I am also lucky to work alongside our large internal SAP team and have the joy of working with both the newest and oldest bookends of the SAP stack!
I have a diverse professional background and relevant experiences – starting with a false start in Construction, a life changing development stint as an Officer in the Royal Navy, before landing in an industry that suited my passions…. Technology and working with people. As a consultant early in my career I worked across multiple clients, geographies, and industries before spending the last 15 years in senior industry roles before landing the job I now do and love … working for AstraZeneca and helping us transform – within a company whose values and purpose match my own.
Away from work I hail from Sheffield, and I’m a long-suffering fan of a terrible football team (yep still watch them – not from Sheffield though). I’m blessed to be happily married with two teenagers (another great learning experience) and a low maintenance stress reducer called Bruno (he’s the dog btw).
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll support me.
Russ
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