Dr. Christoph Schroeder is the Global Head of Industry Business Unit Retail & Wholesale Distribution at SAP SE in Walldorf. 

With 20 years of experience in technology and retail, Christoph has held leadership roles spanning solution design, product marketing, and software development. He is a recognized expert in merchandising, fashion, supply chain, business networks, and market creation. As one of the original architects of SAP’s Fashion ERP, Christoph also leads SAP’s Cloud Go-to-Market strategy for the Retail suite. He serves as a trusted advisor and thought leader to SAP’s global retail and fashion clients. Moreover, Christoph has co-founded SAP's Fashion Council and Advisory Council for Sustainability, demonstrating his commitment to driving industry-specific innovation and sustainable development. 

He holds a Ph.D. in International Management, an Executive MBA from Mannheim Business School and Georgetown University, a Master's degree in Business Administration, Economics, and Sociology from Trier University, and a Bachelor's with Honors in banking and finance from Open University London.

Phillip brings over 20 years of experience supporting organizations across a wide range of industries in delivering Data, Analytics, and Planning solutions.

He follows a business-first approach, placing clear business requirements at the center of every initiative to ensure solutions generate measurable value and sustainable impact. While he is passionate about technology, his primary focus is on empowering people and enabling organizations to achieve meaningful, lasting outcomes.

Thomas Rath is currently working as Product Owner Purchasing at toom Baumarkt, where his team drives SAP‑based procurement and automated replenishment processes. Previously, he spent several years at Commerzbank, most recently as Senior Product Owner for international SAP backends, and before that held various roles in SAP accounting and agile environments. His career therefore spans many years of experience in product ownership, project management, and agile methodologies within the SAP context.

Anja Winterer-Grüne has been an IT project manager at migrolino for four years and is leading the introduction of S/4HANA. Prior to this, she gained extensive experience in complex IT and SAP projects as SAP Integration Manager at UPC. 

Karl has over 18 years experience in retail performing many roles across the supply chain. For the last 10 years his primary focus has been on forecasting and replenishment topics, with extensive knowledge of SAPs UDF, F&R and RPL solutions. 

As a seasoned Solution Evangelist in Data & Analytics with six years of experience in the retail industry, Florian specializes in advancing SAP's cloud-based data and analytics solutions for the sector. His role focuses on championing innovative strategies and tools to enhance business intelligence and operational efficiency.

With 18 years of experience in the Finance and Controlling sphere, Ana has participated in the delivery of multiple end-to-end implementation programmes across Europe. She’s been fully focused on the retail industry since 2020 and leads a team of very talented finance experts. Ana is passionate about delivering business value to clients and help them maximise their SAP investment.

Achim Schneider has been Managing Partner of retailsolutions since February 2026.

In this role, he is responsible for the global strategic development of the company with a clear focus on sustainable customer benefits, long-term customer relationships and innovative SAP-based solutions along the entire value chain in retail. This is based on his 27 years at SAP, the last ten of which he spent as Global Head of the SAP Retail Business Unit, where he gained extensive international experience in consulting, product strategy, solution management and global go-to-market activities.

As Global Vice President of the SAP Retail Industry Business Unit, Achim Schneider and his global team were responsible for the worldwide positioning and launch of the entire retail and fashion management portfolio, among other things. In addition, he managed complex transformation programmes at leading retail companies, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, China and Latin America. As a leader, Achim Schneider is characterised by a deep understanding of his customers' strategic goals and challenges.

He knows how to align SAP expertise and technological innovation with measurable business results and accompany companies through their digital transformation as a trusted partner.

Marco Statt is Managing Director IT at the E/D/E Group, where he is responsible for the strategic transformation of the IT landscape with a strong focus on SAP Cloud ERP, clean-core principles, and modern enterprise architectures. With more than 20 years of experience in retail and wholesale IT, he combines deep technology expertise with a pragmatic, business-oriented approach to large-scale transformation.

Ulli Sachse is Managing Director at BANDTWORKS, where he leads strategic consulting and technology enablement for SAP-based digital and cloud transformations in retail and wholesale. With extensive experience in SAP strategy, enterprise architecture and IT management, he focuses on delivering practical solutions that align business value with technology execution.

After many years of management experience at SAP (including as Consulting Director) and a successful period as an entrepreneur and pioneer of the first HANA migrations, Guido joined the Aldi Nord Executive Board as Group COO.
His role as a partner in top-level strategy consulting at McKinsey ultimately led him to REWE digital, where he now plays a key role in steering the technological modernisation of the retail group as Managing Director and COO.

David is Vice President North America at retailsolutions group. In his role, he is responsible for building and leading the North American consulting practice, driving market growth, and cultivating long-term strategic partnerships with key clients, while continuing to shape enterprise architecture and business transformation initiatives for large enterprise customers.

With over 19 years of SAP Retail experience across Grocery, Fashion and General Merchandise, David combines deep industry expertise with strong leadership in strategy, innovation, and go-to-market execution. He supports customers in planning and delivering complex transformation programs, with a strong focus on SAP S/4HANA, Industry Cloud adoption, and modern enterprise architecture, ensuring measurable business outcomes and sustainable growth.

Dr. Marco Tietze is a leading expert in business-driven IT transformations. He is a Partner at Strategy& Germany and a member of the Retail and Consumer practice, advising clients on all aspects of technology-enabled strategy and organizational projects, digital business models such as eCommerce marketplace platforms, and large-scale, business-led IT transformation programs.

The IT specialist, who holds a degree in computer science from TU Darmstadt, has been head of Information Technology at Aramark Germany since 2018. He brings his high level of expertise to one of the leading full-service caterers, having previously held leading positions in the IT sector for software providers and publishers.

Working for almost 30 years with SAP Retail has given Steve a world of experiences.  Originally at SAP, but then working as both consultant and retail CIO, he bings a unique perspective.  Now, as Director of Technology Delivery at cardfactory, he is helping to shape the SAP-centric future.

Stefan Gempp is responsible for the team "IT Solutions MM, SBO + Promotions" and was the project leader at the S/4 HANA + Retail HEC migration at Coop. He joined Coop in 2017 and is working in the SAP environment more than 20 years.

Levin Gorgs is a Consultant at retailsolutions specialising in SAP Retail, SAP CAR, and S/4HANA. With a master’s degree in Business Informatics and deep expertise in SAP Industry Cloud, he has successfully delivered projects for major retailers including Volg, Coop, Aldi Nord, and Valora. His expertise spans SAP implementations, interface development, and cloud-native retail transformations.

With a hands-on background in SD consultancy and fashion, Waldemar has spent 15 years at adidas in various SAP-related roles. For the past five years, he has been leading all S/4 deliverables on the technology side within the supply chain area.

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Robert Rabe leads SAP’s Product and Engineering organization for Consumer Industries (Consumer Products, Retail, Wholesale Distribution, and Fashion), guiding strategy, innovation, and execution across SAP’s portfolio for the world’s top consumer brands.

Stephan Rüschen joined DHBW Heilbronn in 2013 as Professor of Food Retail, bringing extensive international leadership experience from the food and consumer goods sector.
Before entering academia, Stephan spent more than a decade with Metro Cash & Carry, where he served as Managing Director for Marketing and Purchasing in several countries.
Earlier in his career, Stephan worked for the Tengelmann Group in Purchasing and Corporate Development.
Stephan is recognised for his deep expertise in food retail, international sourcing and retail innovation.

Born in Ukraine (then part of the USSR), Igor Kurkov moved to Germany at the age of 18 and studied computer science in Leipzig. 

He joined SAP in 2000 and, over a 25-year career, held various leadership positions, including Chief Operating Officer for Central and Eastern Europe and Chairman of SAP CIS (after serving seven months as Interim Managing Director). During this time, he led global teams, developed go-to-market strategies, drove complex cloud transformations, and managed major customer projects. 

Since 2025, Igor Kurkov has been with Schwarz Digits, as Managing Director SAP Engagements.

Bringing over a decade of experience in the retail sector, Sunny is an established Enterprise Architect with a strong track record of leading multiple SAP transformations for various retailers.
Having recently joined retailsolutions as an Enterprise Architect, Sunny now spearheads the delivery of Architecture as a Service.
This involves strategically leveraging SAP's toolchain applications to ensure retailers achieve their business requirements through optimised retail solutions.

Arndt joined smartShift in 2002 as one of the founding team members of smartShift. Arndt is responsible for the overall Customer Experience with smartShift, our customer Council, leveraging customer input for Marketing, Product and Solution decisions and selected key accounts. Before becoming CCO, Arndt was responsible for smartShift EMEA business.

Before joining smartShift, Arndt was Project Manager and Client Partner for i-Cube, an IT Transformation company based in Cambridge, MA. At i-Cube, Arndt was responsible for complex transformation projects in Europe.

Earlier in his career, Arndt was Consultant and Project Manager for the Financial Services Unit of Cooper & Lybrand / PwC in Frankfurt leading SAP Implementation projects in Europe.

Arndt holds a Master in Business Administration, Business Computing from the University of Marburg, Germany.

Hans-Jörg Blaeser, born in Berlin in 1966, has been responsible for IT at Ernsting's family as Head of IT since August 2018.

After graduating with a degree in computer engineering from the TFH Berlin, he started at Schiesser AG as an organizational programmer and PL. This was followed by a 3-year internship at the textile company Bonds ind. in Sydney, Australia.

He has many years of experience in international senior IT management and consulting in various consumer goods, retail companies and IT service providers with a wide variety of brick-and-mortar and online business models and vertical integrations. Some of the most important stations were Media-Saturn, Kaufland, Neckermann.de as well as EDS/HP and IBM.

Prior to his current position at Ernsting's family, he worked as an independent consultant and associated partner of Intargia at various retailers in the areas of IT organization, strategy development, enterprise architecture and the creation and implementation of the digitization roadmap.