Léo Apotheker

Léo Apotheker
Léo Apotheker
Born	18 9, 1953
Birthplace	Aachen, West Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Business executive, corporate board member
Known for	CEO of Hewlett-Packard (2010–2011) CEO of SAP AG (2008–2010)
Education	Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Léo Apotheker (born 18 September 1953) is a German business executive who served as chief executive officer of two of the world's largest technology companies — SAP AG and Hewlett-Packard (HP) — within the span of three years. Born in Aachen, West Germany, Apotheker spent more than two decades at SAP, the enterprise software giant, rising through its ranks to become co-CEO in April 2008 before departing in February 2010. He was subsequently appointed CEO and president of Hewlett-Packard in September 2010, a tenure that proved brief and turbulent, ending with his dismissal in September 2011 after the company lost more than $30 billion in market capitalization. His time at HP was marked by a series of ambitious but controversial strategic decisions, including the proposed acquisition of British software company Autonomy, the contemplated divestiture of HP's personal computer business, and the discontinuation of the WebOS operating system. Fluent in five languages — German, Dutch, French, English, and Hebrew — Apotheker has subsequently served on the boards of several international companies and nonprofit organizations.

Early Life

Léo Apotheker was born on 18 September 1953 in Aachen, a city in the western part of what was then West Germany, near the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands. Details about his family background and upbringing in Aachen remain limited in publicly available sources. His multilingual abilities — he is fluent in German, Dutch, French, English, and Hebrew — reflect a cosmopolitan upbringing and suggest significant exposure to multiple cultural and linguistic environments during his formative years.

Apotheker's connection to Israel, evidenced by his fluency in Hebrew and his subsequent education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, indicates that he spent a formative period of his life in that country. The specifics of when he relocated to Israel or the circumstances surrounding that move are not extensively documented in available sources.

Education

Apotheker attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of Israel's leading academic institutions. Further details regarding his specific field of study, degree obtained, or graduation date are not extensively documented in the sources available. His subsequent career trajectory in enterprise software and corporate management suggests a background aligned with business, technology, or a related discipline.

Career

SAP AG (1988–2010)

Apotheker joined SAP AG, the German multinational enterprise software corporation, in 1988. Over the course of more than two decades at the company, he rose through various leadership positions, playing what has been described as an instrumental role in developing and implementing significant changes within the organization.

Apotheker's ascent within SAP culminated in his appointment as co-chief executive officer in April 2008. During his time in senior leadership, SAP was the world's largest maker of business management software, serving corporations across virtually every industry sector. As co-CEO, Apotheker was responsible for guiding the company's strategic direction during a period of intense competition in the enterprise software market and the emerging shift toward cloud computing and software-as-a-service models.

His tenure as co-CEO, however, was not without difficulty. SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner, who served as chairman of the supervisory board, publicly discussed challenges facing the company during this period. Apotheker resigned as co-CEO in February 2010 following a decision by SAP's supervisory board not to renew his contract. His departure from SAP, after more than twenty years with the company, marked the end of a long chapter in his career but set the stage for his next major appointment.

Appointment as CEO of Hewlett-Packard

On 30 September 2010, the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard announced the appointment of Léo Apotheker as chief executive officer and president of the company. Concurrently, Ray Lane, a former president of Oracle Corporation, was named non-executive chairman of HP's board. Apotheker replaced Cathie Lesjak, who had been serving as interim CEO following the departure of Mark Hurd in August 2010.

The selection of Apotheker was seen by some observers as a signal that HP intended to increase its focus on enterprise software, an area where Apotheker had deep experience from his years at SAP. At the time of his appointment, HP was the world's largest technology company by revenue, with businesses spanning personal computers, printers, servers, storage, networking equipment, and IT services. The Economist noted the significance of selecting a CEO with a software background to lead a company historically defined by its hardware operations.

Apotheker officially assumed the CEO role in November 2010.

Tenure at Hewlett-Packard (2010–2011)

Apotheker's tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard lasted approximately eleven months and was characterized by a series of bold strategic announcements that generated significant controversy and market turmoil.

Strategic Shifts

Under Apotheker's leadership, HP undertook several major strategic initiatives in rapid succession. In the summer of 2011, the company announced three significant moves within a matter of weeks: the proposed acquisition of Autonomy, a British enterprise software company, for approximately $10–11 billion; the potential spin-off or sale of HP's personal computer business, which generated approximately $41 billion in annual revenue; and the discontinuation of products based on the WebOS mobile operating system, which HP had acquired through its purchase of Palm, Inc. in 2010.

The Autonomy acquisition was intended to accelerate HP's transformation from a hardware-centric company into one with a stronger presence in enterprise software and data analytics. However, the deal's premium valuation raised immediate concerns among analysts and investors. The proposed divestiture of the PC business — one of HP's largest divisions by revenue — signaled a dramatic departure from the company's historical identity as a leading hardware manufacturer. The discontinuation of WebOS, meanwhile, effectively ended HP's efforts to compete in the fast-growing smartphone and tablet markets.

Market Reaction and Financial Impact

The market's reaction to these announcements was swift and negative. HP's share price declined by close to 50 percent during Apotheker's tenure. The company lost more than $30 billion in market capitalization during his time as CEO, a figure that alarmed shareholders, analysts, and HP's own board of directors.

The Harvard Business Review examined whether Apotheker's strategic boldness ultimately led to his dismissal, noting that while the strategic direction he articulated — moving HP toward software and services — was not necessarily wrong in concept, the speed and manner of execution caused significant disruption to the company's operations and investor confidence. The simultaneous announcement of multiple transformative initiatives, each of which would have been significant on its own, created an atmosphere of uncertainty around the company's future direction.

Dismissal

On 22 September 2011, HP's board of directors removed Apotheker as CEO and replaced him with Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, who had been serving as a member of HP's board. Apotheker's departure came after less than a year in the role, making his tenure one of the shortest for a CEO of a major technology company.

The terms of Apotheker's separation from HP attracted scrutiny. According to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, his contract included provisions for a substantial severance package. Reports indicated that Apotheker received approximately $13 million in connection with his departure, while his successor, Meg Whitman, initially accepted a salary of $1.

The Autonomy Acquisition and Its Aftermath

The acquisition of Autonomy, which was completed after Apotheker's departure, became one of the most contentious corporate deals in technology industry history. In November 2012, HP alleged that Autonomy's former management had engaged in accounting improprieties that artificially inflated the company's financial performance prior to the acquisition, and HP took an $8.8 billion write-down on the value of the Autonomy business.

The resulting legal proceedings extended over many years. In April 2019, during a trial in London, Apotheker testified in court regarding his role in the Autonomy acquisition. He stated that if Autonomy's accounts had been inaccurate, he doubted that HP would have pursued the deal. According to reporting by The Register, Apotheker acknowledged during his testimony that he had not personally read Autonomy's most recent accounts before approving the acquisition.

The New York Times later published an analysis in 2015 comparing Apotheker's tenure unfavorably with that of Carly Fiorina, who had served as HP's CEO from 1999 to 2005 and whose leadership had itself been a subject of significant debate. The article argued that Apotheker's brief stewardship may have been more damaging to the company than Fiorina's longer tenure.

Post-HP Career and Board Service

Following his departure from Hewlett-Packard, Apotheker transitioned into a career focused on corporate board service and advisory roles. He joined the boards of several technology and services companies.

Apotheker was appointed to the supervisory board of Steria, the European IT services company, alongside Laetitia Puyfaucher. He also joined the board of directors of GT Nexus, a cloud-based supply chain management platform. Additionally, he served on the boards of KMD, a Danish IT company, and Schneider Electric, the French multinational corporation specializing in energy management and automation. He also served on the board of PlaNet Finance (later renamed Positive Planet), a nonprofit organization focused on microfinance and financial inclusion.

In 2012, reports indicated that Apotheker was exploring opportunities for a return to active corporate leadership.

Apotheker later joined the board of Signavio, a business process management software company.

In January 2021, Apotheker was announced as the first independent board member of Appway, a technology company specializing in workflow automation for financial services. The appointment was announced by Summit Partners, a growth equity firm that had invested in Appway. In the announcement, Apotheker's extensive experience in enterprise software and his leadership roles at SAP and HP were cited as qualifications for the position.

Personal Life

Léo Apotheker was born in Aachen, West Germany, and has connections to both Germany and Israel through his education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is fluent in five languages: German, Dutch, French, English, and Hebrew, reflecting a multilingual and multicultural background that has characterized his career in international business.

Apotheker has given interviews to major media outlets including Charlie Rose during his career, discussing enterprise technology and corporate strategy.

Further details about Apotheker's personal life, including his family, are not extensively documented in publicly available sources.

Legacy

Léo Apotheker's career presents a study in contrasts that has been examined by business scholars, journalists, and industry observers. His more than twenty years at SAP, where he rose from a mid-level position to co-CEO, demonstrated sustained corporate achievement within one of the world's most important enterprise software companies. His tenure at Hewlett-Packard, by contrast, became one of the most scrutinized CEO appointments in recent corporate history.

The Harvard Business Review examined Apotheker's HP tenure as a case study in the tension between strategic ambition and execution, noting that the strategic direction he charted for HP — toward enterprise software and away from commoditized hardware — was a vision that subsequent HP leaders, including Meg Whitman, partially pursued. HP's eventual split into two separate companies in 2015 — HP Inc. (focused on PCs and printers) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (focused on enterprise technology) — echoed elements of Apotheker's earlier vision for restructuring the company's portfolio, though the circumstances and execution differed substantially.

The Autonomy acquisition, initiated under Apotheker's leadership and completed after his departure, generated years of litigation and became a cautionary tale about the risks of large-scale corporate acquisitions, due diligence processes, and the challenges of integrating acquired companies. Apotheker's testimony during the Autonomy trial, in which he acknowledged not having personally reviewed the company's latest financial accounts before approving the deal, drew significant media attention and contributed to ongoing discussions about the responsibilities of CEOs in merger and acquisition processes.

The New York Times assessment that Apotheker may have been a more problematic CEO for HP than Carly Fiorina reflected the severity with which his tenure was judged in retrospect, particularly given the scale of the market capitalization losses during his brief time in charge.

In his post-HP career, Apotheker's continued appointment to the boards of technology companies such as Schneider Electric, Signavio, and Appway indicated that his expertise in enterprise software and his deep knowledge of the technology industry continued to be valued in governance roles, even as his CEO tenure at HP remained a subject of debate in business and technology circles.