SAP Confirms Departure Of Key Software Development Executive

Wookey's departure has created speculation among industry observers and analysts that he might be moving over to Hewlett-Packard where former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker was named CEO last year. Apotheker has said that HP needs to expand its software product offerings and software sales and Wookey presumably could provide a boost to the company's internal development efforts.

Hewlett-Packard spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"John Wookey has decided to leave SAP after having executed on his vision of creating an entirely new class of on-demand applications for Line of Businesses," said an SAP spokesman, in a statement Monday. "John made a personal decision to spend more time with his family and we thank him for his contribution to SAP's success in the on-demand space and wish him all the best for his future."

Wookey took on the job of vice president of Large Enterprise On-Demand at SAP in late 2008. Previously he worked at Oracle overseeing that company's massive Fusion application development project, and his taking the post at SAP was widely seen at the time as a significant coup for the Waldorf, Germany-based company.

At SAP Wookey was charged with developing a series of on-demand, line-of-business applications that work with the company's flagship SAP Business Suite and cloud-based Business ByDesign applications. Last month the company unveiled the Sales OnDemand application, the first of a series of add-on cloud applications that run on the Business ByDesign platform. SAP said others, including Travel OnDemand, Career OnDemand and Sourcing OnDemand, would be rolled out this year.

The Line of Business OnDemand team will remain unchanged and will report to Peter Lorenz, the SAP executive vice president responsible for Business ByDesign, for the time being, the SAP spokesman said.