Sona Vaish Venkat

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Global Vice President, Head of Competitive and Market Intelligence at SAP

Summary
Industry recognized technology executive experienced in marketing and corporate strategy at the
leading enterprise software companies, SAP and Oracle. Career track record of driving influence,
uniting diverse teams, and mentoring talent in large, culturally dispersed organizations.Highly
adept at launching initiatives that grow presence and build identity in new markets, segments, and
solution areas. Skilled at crafting multi-audience positioning and messaging to drive awareness,
start meaningful conversations and incent behavior. Strong aptitude at building credibility and
relationships with core influencers from analysts, press to bloggers. Proven ability to deliver demand
generation programs anchored in the end to end digital experience.

Experience
Global Vice President, Head of Competitive & Market Intelligence at SAP
January 2015  -  Present  (1 year 6 months)
•Own the end to end competitive and market intelligence function for SAP which is responsible
for analyzing market trends, understanding key competitors and helping shape SAP’s strategic
direction and sales execution
•Manage a team of professionals (VPs, directors and individual contributors) that are competitor,
industry and regional experts delivering content and collateral that helps SAP accurately predict,
respond and win against the competition
•Build the annual, quantitative view of SAP’s total addressable market at a solution, geography and
industry level working with Gartner Research
•Develop thought leadership and identify the key trends that influence SAP’s future direction
•Create a crowd sourced community for competitive intelligence

Vice President, Corporate Strategy at SAP

May 2014  -  December 2014  (8 months)
•Defined and articulated messaging for SAP's company strategy to transition to the cloud computing
model
•Worked on core messaging for an internal and external campaign for SAP and our customers to
Run Simple
•Partnered with Sales, Support, Consulting, Development to translate strategy to concrete
objectives, manage change, and measure impact
•Shaped SAP’s small and medium (SME) solutions strategy
 •Drove strategic initiatives around key SAP Board priorities, growth drivers and market analysis

Vice President, SAP Business One Marketing at SAP

April 2013  -  May 2014  (1 year 2 months)
•Led the marketing strategy, branding, and messaging for SAP Business One, a complete solution
(available on premise or via cloud) for SMEs to manage all aspects of their operations
•Owned all new product launches for core solution and versions for cloud, mobile and SAP HANA
•Orchestrated multi-region demand generation plans to meet aggressive revenue targets
•Thought leader and spokesperson for SAP as a leader in the SME market

Senior Director, eChannels Marketing at SAP

March 2011  -  April 2013  (2 years 2 months)
•Responsible for marketing strategy and demand generation for the SAP Store, the digital
marketplace for solutions from SAP and partners
•Optimized See/Try/Buy and entire e-commerce customer journey including identifying key partner
and piloting first social commerce initiative at SAP which delivered product Ratings & Peer
Reviews
•Led marketing recruitment and enablement for platform partner programs to recruit and incent ISV
partners to build mobile and cloud applications on SAP's core platforms

Director, Global Partner & Enablement Marketing at SAP

August 2005  -  March 2011  (5 years 8 months)
•Led the marketing strategy, messaging, branding and planning for the SI and ISV tracks of the
SAP PartnerEdge program including the creation of marketing benefits such as e-marketing tool,
SAP Virtual Agency

Senior Manager, Services Marketing at SAP

April 2004  -  July 2005  (1 year 4 months)
•Responsible for SAP Services branding and messaging for customers and SAP field including
creation of marketing collateral, presentations, website content and sales trainings

Senior Group Manager, E-Business Suite On Demand Marketing at Oracle

October 2001  -  February 2004  (2 years 5 months)
•Responsible for positioning, messaging, enablement and communications for Oracle E-Business
Suite On Demand

Principal Product Marketing Manager, OracleMobile Marketing at Oracle

February 2001  -  October 2001  (9 months)
•Drove product messaging and marketing for the mobile functionality of Oracle app server and
CRM applications
Education
Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business
MBA, Finance, Strategy, 1998 - 2000
The George Washington University
BBA, International Business, Cum Laude, 1991 - 1995
Sona Vaish Venkat
Washington D.C. Metro Area
Global Vice President, Head of Competitive and Market Intelligence at SAP

7 people have recommended Sona

"I hired Sona into Oracle and had the pleasure of working with her for three years. Sona excels at
building relationships with people at all levels of complex organizations, and is often able to get
things done quickly because of the strength of her relationships. She is also a strategic thinker with
creative ideas and an in depth understanding of enterprise software. I would hire Sona again in an
instant if given the opportunity."

—Paige O'Neill, Chief Marketing Officer,  Prysm Inc.,  managed Sona at Oracle

"Sona is a pleasure to work with and I’d welcome the opportunity to do so again and again. She
is not only creative, but possesses excellent project management skills. Sona is also a picture
of efficiency and focus. She is proactive and highly accountable, which also translates to great
results."

—Amanda Mountain, Vice President, Strategic Communications for SAP Digital,  SAP,  worked with
Sona at SAP

"Sona is a delightful person to work with. She is a diligent, strategic-thinking marketeer, and
works well with everyone she encounters. She is a team player who goes the extra mile to ensure
success for her projects. I would love the opportunity to work with her again and would highly
recommend her."

—Michelle Landaverde, Director,  Oracle,  worked directly with Sona at Oracle

"Sona worked for me and then with me at Oracle Corporation. Of all the people that I have ever
worked with, Sona is among the very best. She quickly learned how to be successful in a very
challenging environment. Her ability to quickly win over both the key stakeholders as well as her
peers across many of different parts of a far-flung (national and global) organization, allowed her to
make dramatic improvements to processes that helped drive significantly improved results. Sona
also volunteered to take on cross-team roles (such as customer references) that were critical not
only to my team, but the broader services and outsorucing teams as a whole. Her work her enabled
 several groups to excel despite being in an early, emerging market. If I ever got the oppoirtunity to
hire her or work with again, I would definitely take advantage of it"

—Todd Berkowitz, Research Vice President, Tech Go-to-Market and Sales Strategies,  Gartner, 
managed Sona at Oracle

"Sona is that ideal reporting manager anybody would wish to have worked with especially when
moving into a new role in an organization. I was fortunate to have worked with her and hold
her in very high regard both as a manager and somebody who has an excellent command and
knowledge of the marketing area. Her experience and strategic thinking provides ease of direction
and immense learning opportunities. Even though we worked remotely sitting on opposite ends of
the global, she maintained a personal connection and somebody who could be approached easily. I
see Sona as a super leader and a wonderful mentor."

—Sid Rabindran, Director, Citrix Ready,  Citrix,  reported to Sona at SAP

"Sona is smart, efficient and widely respected by everybody who works with her. She goes out of
her way to enable her colleagues and helped me tremendously when I came on board at SAP."

—Natascha Thomson, CEO, Founder & Social (Media) Business Consultant,  MarketingXLerator, 

worked with Sona at SAP

"Sona has the incredible can do attitude with a strong marketing background that makes it an
absolute pleasure to work with her. Having Sona on your team is a recipe for success."

—Sami Hero, VP Global Customer Experience & Engagement,  Wolters Kluwer Health,  managed
Sona at SAP

Profile Notes and Activity (1)

6/23/2016—View by SAP S/4HANA Online Training