From Corner Store to Corner Office | Press Releases

SAP CEO William McDermott to discuss his rise to business success April 28 at Fairfield University

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (April 14, 2015) – William McDermott, chief executive officer and executive board member of SAP, the world’s software market leader, will deliver Fairfield University’s annual Charles F. Dolan Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28 in the Dolan School of Business Dining Room. McDermott’s talk, “Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office,” is free and open to the public.

Seating is limited and reservations are required. For complimentary tickets, contact Patricia Pivarnik at 203-254-4307 or ppivarnik@fairfield.edu .

McDermott leads SAP’s 74,400 employees and more than two million-person ecosystem in executing SAP’s vision and strategy to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Under his leadership, in 2014 SAP unveiled a strategy to help businesses of all sizes “run simple.” The company has placed an unrivaled focus on delivering a beautiful user experience and has built the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of solutions in the SAP Cloud powered by SAP HANA. SAP also boasts the world’s largest business network, with more than $600 billion transacted annually.

Since 2010, this innovation-led strategy has resulted in expansive increases in customers, total revenue, market value and profitable growth. The SAP transformation is one of many authentic stories told in McDermott’s national best-selling book “Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office.”

At Fairfield, McDermott will provide students, faculty, alumni and the public his perspective on leadership and career success. His book chronicles how relentless optimism, hard work and disciplined execution can embolden people and equip organizations to achieve audacious goals. He’ll describe how he made the journey from working in a small deli on Long Island to the position of global CEO.

“Bill McDermott is a great example for students of what it takes to succeed in today’s major corporations,” said Don Gibson, Ph.D., dean of the Dolan School of Business. “As his story shows, it’s not what you start out with – he had very little. It’s how you leverage hard work and energy to inspire others that really supercharges achievement in business.”

The Charles F. Dolan Lecture series, featuring highly accomplished, visionary and internationally recognized business leaders, was established in 2001.