About Dean Sivara
Dean is the Vice President of Innovation & New Businesses, in the Products & Innovation Group.
The Innovation and New Businesses practice is one of SAP’s global incubation and commercialization engines, looking to capitalize on industry disruptions and building new businesses in adjacent markets. The Innovation group evaluates new ideas that will provide future competitive advantages for SAP, leveraging assets in five strategic areas: enterprise applications, analytics, mobility, cloud, and database & technology. The goal is to seed new businesses that will either be integrated into existing lines of business or form the core of new units.
Dean’s role within the Innovation group is to lead the Ideation and Startup activities, including gathering and evaluating ideas and leading the creation of compelling business cases for those ideas deemed most attractive. Once ideas are approved to become new business lines, Dean helps hire the new startup management team, and then works with the management team to develop their business and Go-to-Market strategies. Dean also helps the new startups leverage SAP assets and resources, by connecting startups with SAP executives and resources in the areas of marketing, development, legal, ecosystem and other key areas inside and outside SAP. He also works closely with the Silicon Valley ecosystem, collaborating with Venture Capitalists, research groups, incubators and universities.
Before joining SAP, Dean worked for Cisco Systems, where he had a number of roles. His last job at Cisco was as the Head of Product Management for a new internal business startup in the Smart & Connected Cities (SCC) area. Dean also had roles in the Emerging Technology Group, where he ran the New Startup Scaling Team, which was a group of resources dedicated to helping new businesses scale at Cisco. He also spent 6 years as an Industry Principal, working with Cisco’s largest accounts, helping customer executives transform their businesses using technology.
Before Cisco, Dean was a management consultant with companies such as Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young, IBM Consulting and Kurt Salmon Associates.
Dean holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business.
