Dr. Karl-Michael Popp is an accomplished corporate development, mergers and acquisitions strategist with years of experience in the software business, having successfully analyzed, managed relationships, and worked with over 120 software companies. He is an expert in mergers and acquisitions, platform and ecosystem development, and partnerships, having successfully executed over 30 mergers and acquisitions in various countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, Italy, Vietnam, and the UK. Popp is a sought-after advisor, speaker, and writer, and has authored several successful books on merger due diligence, open source best practices, and software company strategy and business models.

Popp holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Business Administration from the University of Bamberg, and he studied Executive Program, Mergers and Acquisitions at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is a senior member of ACM and a long-time member of the IEEE, GI, and the international software product management association. Popp serves on the program committee of the International Conference on the software business ICSOB.ORG and is a reviewer for IEEE Software.

Currently, Popp is the Senior Director Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development at SAP, where he is responsible for the company's corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions. Before joining SAP, Popp was the Director Strategic Partners and the Development Manager Business Process Technology at SAP AG and the Division Manager at Norcom AG, respectively.