Yasser Elshantaf is an executive leader and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of international experience across strategy, enterprise transformation, technology, operations, organizational development, and innovation.
His career spans Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, where he has held senior global and regional leadership responsibilities, led multidisciplinary teams, managed complex transformation programs and multi-million-euro technology and investment portfolios, and taken responsibility for enterprise capabilities, digital platforms, and large-scale strategic initiatives.
Throughout his career, Yasser has combined deep technology expertise with broad business and management experience, with a particular focus on transforming technology from an operational function into a driver of strategy, growth, resilience, and sustainable business value.
Executive Profile
Yasser’s experience centers on leading organizations through complex periods of transformation and change, connecting strategy with execution and building the capabilities required to deliver sustainable outcomes.
He has contributed to transformation strategies, operating model development, organizational capability building, investment prioritization, performance improvement, and the alignment of technology initiatives with long-term business objectives.
He has worked closely with executive leadership teams and boards on strategy execution, governance, investment priorities, risk management, organizational effectiveness, technology, and innovation.
His career includes leadership of global and regional technology organizations and multidisciplinary teams across enterprise applications, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, and digital services. His responsibilities have included leading a global team of more than 200 professionals and managing multinational and regional organizational structures.
His leadership approach is based on viewing the organization as an interconnected system. From his perspective, meaningful transformation requires alignment between strategy, organizational structure, processes, capabilities, data, technology, leadership, and culture.
Enterprise Technology, SAP & AI
Enterprise technology has been a central part of Yasser’s professional experience, spanning enterprise applications, digital architectures, cloud platforms, data, integration, analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence.
He has developed broad experience across the SAP ecosystem, from traditional ERP environments to modern cloud applications, integration technologies, data platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities. His experience includes SAP ERP, ECC, S/4HANA, SAP Business One, SuccessFactors, Ariba, Concur, Integrated Business Planning, SAP Business Technology Platform, Integration Suite, SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP HANA Cloud, SAP BW, Master Data Governance, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP Business AI, Joule, SAP Signavio, and SAP LeanIX.
His responsibilities have extended across a broader enterprise application landscape, including direct responsibility for, or integration across, solutions such as SAP GTS, SAP Product Compliance, SAP Group Reporting, FIS/edc, XFT, SAP Commissions, SAP Enable Now, Salesforce, Planisware, Snowflake, Qlik, Microsoft 365, PLM Aras, MES, LIMS, document management and labeling systems, and other specialized business applications.
He has also led the establishment of an integrated data and analytics platform supporting thousands of users internationally, connecting enterprise applications, data, analytics, automation, and AI to improve reporting efficiency, management insight, and decision support.
Yasser approaches these technologies as interconnected components of an enterprise landscape supporting finance, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, product compliance, human resources, sales, services, data, analytics, and corporate functions.
His interest in artificial intelligence extends beyond individual tools and use cases to the organizational foundations required for effective adoption: data quality, architecture, integration, governance, process maturity, business context, and human accountability in decision-making.
M&A, Integration & Organizational Transformation
Mergers and acquisitions form an important part of Yasser’s experience, particularly where transactions require the integration or separation of organizations, systems, data, services, and operational capabilities.
He has led post-merger integration and IT carve-out programs across multiple business entities while maintaining service continuity throughout the transition.
His responsibilities have included assessing technology landscapes; determining which systems and services should be integrated, separated, migrated, replaced, or redesigned; and managing transitions across applications, data, infrastructure, vendors, and operational dependencies.
This work has covered Day-1 readiness, transitional service arrangements, system separation, application migration, data transition, service continuity, and the establishment of new technology environments following restructuring.
Yasser views M&A not as a purely technical exercise, but as an enterprise transformation affecting people, processes, operating models, governance, organizational capabilities, and technology.
His experience also includes workforce planning, capability development, role design, performance objectives, business adoption, and organizational change, ensuring that technology transformation is accompanied by meaningful changes in the way the organization operates.
He has further established and strengthened frameworks for governance, demand management, architecture standards, application lifecycle management, audit readiness, regulatory compliance, technology risk management, cybersecurity governance, and operational resilience, including practices aligned with NIS2.
Entrepreneurship & Global Advisory
Entrepreneurship represents an important parallel track in Yasser’s professional journey.
He is a co-founder of Amwwaly, a digital banking platform, where he has contributed to strategy, operating model design, compliance, partner coordination, and scalability.
The initiative reflects his interest in digital banking, fintech, financial inclusion, digital platforms, and new business models, as well as in using technology not only to modernize established organizations but also to create new services, markets, and operating models.
Yasser also has extensive experience in international advisory and development-related environments.
His work has included programs and engagements involving the European Union, the World Bank, and the United Nations, as well as government entities and other international organizations, in areas including digital transformation, technology governance, operating model development, organizational modernization, and capability building.
These engagements have included technology capability assessments, modernization roadmaps, cloud adoption, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, feasibility studies, data center planning, and the evaluation of technology initiatives and investments.
Earlier in his career, he managed regional transformation and ICT programs with substantial budgets and multi-country stakeholder environments, focusing on digital infrastructure, interoperability, institutional capability building, and international cooperation.
Thought Leadership & Public Engagement
Alongside his executive career, Yasser is engaged in writing and public discussion on the broader impact of technology on business, organizations, people, and society.
His areas of interest include digital transformation, artificial intelligence, data strategy, technology leadership, innovation, organizational change, and the evolving relationship between humans and intelligent systems.
He has published articles and thought leadership in these areas and has participated as a speaker and contributor in international business, technology, and policy forums. His background also includes media contributions on technology, entrepreneurship, economic developments, and digital transformation.
In 2025, he authored the Arabic-language book Human and Philosophical Reflections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence – When Man Becomes the Question, exploring the societal, human, and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence.
His interest in AI is therefore both practical and reflective. He believes the discussion should focus not only on what intelligent systems can do, but also on how they affect responsibility, creativity, decision-making, institutions, and the role of the human being in an increasingly automated world.
Yasser has also participated in professional and international initiatives aimed at strengthening cooperation between Europe and the Arab region and building connections between entrepreneurs, institutions, markets, and technology communities. He is a co-founder of the German-Palestinian Business Council, DPW e.V.
His broader professional engagement has included participation in organizations and networks such as Junior Chamber International, the Palestinian Information Technology Association, the Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and cultural diplomacy platforms. He has also contributed to initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, institutional development, and economic cooperation within the Palestinian business and technology community.
In 2021, he was a candidate in the subsequently postponed Palestinian legislative election on the “Together We Can / Maan Qadiroon” list led by former Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad.
This public engagement forms part of a broader interest in economic development, institution building, technology, entrepreneurship, education, governance, and public policy.
Education
Yasser graduated in 2002 with a degree in Computer Information Systems, which provided the foundation for his career in technology and enterprise systems.
In 2009, he was awarded the Konrad-Zuse-Fellowship for ICT Entrepreneurs, a twelve-month program awarded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
In 2024, he completed a Master of Business Administration in International Business Management at Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society in Germany, further strengthening his background in strategy, leadership, international business, and organizational management.
His educational and professional path reflects a long-standing interest in connecting technology with business, management, economics, organizational development, and public policy.
Perspective
Yasser Elshantaf’s professional journey sits at the intersection of three closely connected dimensions:
Technology. Business. People.
He does not view technology as a function separate from the organization, but as an integral part of how organizations build capabilities, make decisions, develop business models, respond to change, and create long-term value.
From this perspective, organizational maturity is defined not by the number of systems an organization owns or by the novelty of its technology alone, but by its ability to combine clear strategy, capable people, trusted data, adaptable technology, effective governance, and leadership that can turn these elements into meaningful and sustainable outcomes.
His continuing interests lie at the intersection of enterprise transformation, artificial intelligence, enterprise technology, organizational development, M&A, data and analytics, entrepreneurship, and innovation.