SAP's Israeli R&D center, SAP Labs Israel, is entering a new era. According to Calcalist, Michal Romi has been named CEO of the center, succeeding Orna Kleinmann, who is moving to a senior role in SAP's global leadership, where she will lead AI for the company's cloud platform. The appointment comes as SAP tries to make AI a central part of every product it sells.
What they do in Ra'anana
The center was founded in 1998 and is considered one of SAP's most important R&D centers outside Germany. According to Wikipedia and Dun's 100, it leads work on SAP's cloud platform, user identity management, machine learning and big data. It operates from offices in Ra'anana and other sites, and employs an estimated 700 to 800 people, though figures vary between sources.
Built on Israeli acquisitions
Much of SAP's activity in Israel was built on acquisitions of Israeli startups: according to Dun's 100, 12 companies, most recently WalkMe, bought in 2024 for about $1.5 billion. Each brought an Israeli team that became part of the center, along with new areas of expertise.
Israel and SAP's AI
That the Israeli center's former CEO now leads AI for the global cloud platform says a lot about its standing. Today SAP also announced availability of Cohere's AI agent platform for customers in regulated industries. And tomorrow (Wednesday) SAP Connect Day Israel takes place in Kfar Saba, with AI and the move to the cloud at its center. At a time when Israeli software companies are laying off, the R&D centers of international giants, SAP among them, remain an important anchor for tech employment.
