Weilerbach – The advisory board of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider proALPHA has two new members: Franz-Josef Seidensticker will strengthen the board as Chairman and José Duarte as Advisor as per end of January 2017.
Seidensticker (55) has spent the majority of his business career in strategy and business transformation consultancy. For more than 12 years he was a member of the EMEA executive leadership team of Bain, one of the world’s leading management consultancy firms. During that time he was also a member of Bain’s global Board of Directors, Chairman of EMEA Emerging Markets, and Managing Partner of Bain Germany and Switzerland. In a unique way, Franz-Josef combined governance leadership with actively advising CEOs/Chairmen, supervisory boards and private equity investors through major transformations and improvement programs. As member of Bain’s global leadership he built Bain into Germany’s leading transformation partner for Dax-100 corporates, supervised Bain’s Asia growth strategy and market expansion into China, India and Middle East and led the inception of Turkey and CEE offices. Further, Seidensticker is well acquainted with the strategic challenges in the ERP environment through his work for one of the world’s largest business software providers. Since 2012 Franz-Josef, who holds a doctorate in Management Information Systems, acts as Senior Advisor for Bain and is increasingly focusing on corporate governance and transformation processes in mid-cap growth companies as board director, investor and advisor. Today, he is the Chairman of the board of Minimax Viking Holding and Minimax Management GmbH, a global leader in the Fire Protection industry. He serves as a board member of Wittur Holding, the global market leader for elevator components, and of the biotech/pharmaceutical company RMJH Rx headquartered in Ashburn, VA, USA. Further, he is the Chairman of the Digital Advisory Board of Hypovereinsbank/UniCredit in Germany.
The second new member of the proALPHA advisory board, José Duarte (48), has a very extensive international experience in the Enterprise Software arena. For the past three years, he has served as CEO of Unit4, a Netherlands based global enterprise software business, operating in the ERP market for mid-size companies in the Services industries. José has led the company through a significant transformation period. Under his leadership Unit4 was taken private, in a transaction of approximately 1.4bn euros, after a long period of listing in the Amsterdam NYSE. As a private company, Unit4 has undergone a substantial transformation, both in terms of Operating model and Business model, becoming a true SaaS player and while increasing substantially the margins of the business. Before Unit4, José served at SAP for approximately 20 years. He was the founder of the company in Portugal and evolved through the ranks, having served as President Global Services and Corporate Officer, President EMEA+India and President Latin America. During these years he has led some of SAP's largest and most complex operations as well as emerging and fast growing markets. Currently, he serves as Non-Executive Director in Bureau van Dijk, Infovista, i2S and TechEdge España.
The solutions offered by proALPHA form the digital centerpiece that controls every process along the value chain and enables 2,000 customers to efficiently manage their production and use of resources. Founded in 1992, the company now has more than 900 employees at 25 locations in Europe, the United States, and Asia. “Over the past years, we have been able to take a leading role in the digitalization of our clients’ businesses, particularly in the small and medium-sized segment. We work closely with our advisory board to develop new initiatives critical to our success”, says proALPHA CEO Friedrich Neumeyer. “I look forward to driving our continued expansion together with the new board members who are recognised industry insiders.”
Since 2013, proALPHA has been supported in its growth process by Bregal – in addition to providing expertise in internationalisation and M&A strategy development as well as capital, Bregal also offers access to an extensive network of experts.
About proALPHA
The proALPHA group is the third largest provider of ERP for medium-sized manufacturing and trading companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. For 25 years, proALPHA has offered a powerful ERP solution as well as consulting, support, training, and maintenance services from one source. The flexible and scalable ERP solution features a wide range of functions that allow all processes along the value-added chain to be controlled. Among our customers are more than 1,800 medium-sized companies from 50 countries and from various industries, such as mechanical and plant engineering, electronics and high tech, metal working, plastics, wholesale, and automotive and supply industries.
With 25 subsidiaries and certified partners and about 800 employees, the fast growing company is close to its customers all over the world. More than a hundred software developers are constantly expanding and improving the solution. Thanks to them, proALPHA has been named one of the most innovative mid-sized companies eight times. This innovation is also possible thanks to the cooperation with renowned research institutions such as Fraunhofer, RWTH Aachen (Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Technology Aachen), Smart Electronic Factory and SmartFactoryKL. Numerous language versions and country versions make the German ERP provider an interesting partner for companies operating on an international scale.
proALPHA press contact
proALPHA Business Solutions GmbH
Susanne Koerber-Wilhelm
Lise-Meitner-Straße 9, D-85737 Ismaning
Tel. +49 89 92306841 – 445
presse@proalpha.com
