The Walldorf-based software group SAP wants to increase the remuneration for the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The change is to be approved by the Annual General Meeting on May 15. As explained in the invitation to the meeting, the remuneration of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board is to be „adapted to the increased demands of this role“. In future, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board is to receive a significantly higher fixed salary, while additional payments for membership of committees would be waived.

SAP is proposing an annual basic salary of 600,000 euros for the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. As in 2023, the deputies would receive a fixed salary of 220,000 euros. The new arrangement would significantly increase the financial value of the role of Chairman: outgoing Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner received fixed remuneration of 275,000 euros for 2023, plus 155,000 euros for his work on various committees. This brought Plattner's total remuneration to 430,000 euros. In the previous year, it was 439,000 euros.

In the invitation to the Annual General Meeting, SAP explains that the current remuneration of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board in the 2023 financial year was „reviewed with the support of an independent external remuneration expert and, in particular, subjected to an international comparison with European and US listed companies“. This review revealed that the current remuneration should be adjusted.

The reason given for the increase is that the workload for the Chairman of the Supervisory Board has „increased significantly in recent years due to constantly growing demands and responsibilities“. In addition, the market and business environment has become „more complex and demanding“. SAP must also place „particularly high demands“ on the qualifications and expertise of its Supervisory Board Chairman. However, suitable candidates have apparently been able to earn more elsewhere: The current remuneration is „no longer in line with market practice in a market comparison – namely in comparison to listed European, US and other DAX 40 companies“, the invitation states.

In fact, other large DAX companies already remunerate the position better: according to the remuneration report, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens, Jim Hagemann Snabe, received total remuneration of 602,000 euros in the 2023 financial year (as at September 30). The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Mercedes-Benz Group, Bernd Pischetsrieder, received 600,000 euros. At BASF, Supervisory Board Chairman Kurt Bock was entitled to total remuneration of €550,000 for 2023, while Bayer paid the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Norbert Winkeljohann, a total of €509,000. SAP argues in the invitation to the AGM: „An attractive increase in remuneration is essential in order to be competitive and to be able to attract suitable candidates for the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE.“

Last year, SAP initially presented former Deloitte CEO Punit Renjen as the designated successor to Hasso Plattner. However, ideas about what the role of Chairman of the Supervisory Board entails apparently differed. In February, former Nokia CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä was presented as the new candidate for Plattner's successor; Renjen will leave the board at the Annual General Meeting after just one year. Ala-Pietilä will initially be elected for a two-year term of office.