SAPinsider Founds Birgit Starmanns’ Memorial Scholarship

SAPinsider Founds Birgit Starmanns’ Memorial Scholarship

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SAPinsider is launching a scholarship in memory of Birgit Starmanns, a dynamic leader, writer, SAP finance and risk expert, and regular SAPinsider contributor, who passed away earlier this year.

Birgit spent more than 23 years working at SAP, moving up the organization with roles of increasing responsibility, reaching the position of Global Head of oCFO COE Thought Leadership Strategy and Programs, Finance and Risk. She was the author of several books, including Accelerated Financial Closing with SAP and Product Costing and Manufacturing with SAP.

Birgit was a beloved and valued member of the SAPinsider Experts community. She wrote many articles for SAPinsider and participated as a speaker in our events and webinars. You could often see her on panel discussions, keynote stages, and Ask the Expert sessions in which she happily stayed after hours brainstorming solutions with customers and partners over a glass of wine.  She was a presence and a force at our events and will be sorely missed.

To honor her spirit and contributions SAPinsider is establishing The Birgit Starmanns’ Memorial Scholarship that will be awarded to deserving SAP professionals and students to fund their attendance at SAPinsider North America and EMEA events.

SAPinsider is contributing $10,000 in initial funding to the scholarship. In addition, SAP experts speaking at our conference can contribute their $1,000 honorarium to the scholarship. The winners will receive a complimentary All Access Pass at our event, a hotel room for up to 3 nights, and coach class airfare.

The scholarship will be open to both SAP professionals and students. The application process is will require applicants to discuss the importance of advancing their education and training in the SAP space, and how they plan to use their new knowledge to give back to their companies and communities. Click here to apply.

Kevin McCollom, Birgit’s mentor at SAP, and SAPinsider’s Rizal Ahmed, SAPinsider’s Chief Content Officer, will present the scholarship to the winners on the Day 1 Welcome Address of the North American and European events.

“I have known Birgit for close to twenty years and have participated in many event sessions, interviews, and podcasts with her. She was a prolific speaker, writer, and contributor not just the SAPinsider community but to the greater ecosystem. Her work and commitment were born out of true passion and selflessness, not just obligation. We miss her dearly and wanted to establish a way to honor her purpose and mission that would continue to bring value and benefit to the community in the way we believe she would have wanted,” commented Ahmed.

SAPinsider to Join Forces with SAP to Plant One Tree for Every Attendee

In addition, SAPinsider is partnering with SAP on global sustainability to plant one tree for every attendee of our 2022 events and summits, with the goal of planting more than 3,000 trees in 2022. As part of the joint effort, SAP CEO Christian Klein will provide a video introduction to our July event.

SAP has launched an ambitious sustainability initiative to enable a future with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality. SAP’s objective is “to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact within planetary boundaries with special focus on climate action, circular economy, social responsibility, and holistic steering and reporting.”

SAP’s focus on sustainability was reenforced at the recent Sapphire event in Orlando through keynote addresses by SAP CEO Christian Klein and celebrities Kate Hudson and Dax Shepard and will be further detailed in the July SAPInsider Issue which celebrates SAP’s 50th Birthday and features an in-depth interview with Klein.

“In this time of business volatility and disruption, it remains the responsibility of organizations and its leadership to not just acknowledge but take action to support sustainability and give back to the community. These principles are intrinsic to the core values of SAPinsider, and we wanted these initiatives to be tightly integrated with our exciting return to live events in July,” comments James Bedard, CEO of SAPinsider

For more information on the upcoming SAPinsider event and this initiative click here.

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