Mikael Hagström named to lead SAS EMEA and Asia Pacific Operations

CARY, NC  (Nov. 08, 2006)  –  SAS, the leader in business intelligence, today named Mikael Hagström as Executive Vice President of SAS EMEA and Asia Pacific Operations. His appointment by CEO Jim Goodnight comes as SAS approaches its 30th year of revenue growth and profitability. Hagström, who now reports directly to Goodnight, takes over responsibilities of Art Cooke, who announced his retirement Nov. 3.

Cooke is credited with founding the first SAS subsidiary outside the US in 1980 in the UK and growing it to operations in more than 50 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and the Asia-Pacific region with nearly 4,000 employees.

A 16-year SAS veteran, Hagström has been responsible for most of the sales and operations for the EMEA region since he was named Vice President of EMEA Sales in January 2005.

"SAS has had a global presence for more than 25 years but the importance of global integration has never been greater,” Hagström said. “We are driving large global enterprise deals as companies begin to adopt enterprise intelligence platforms for business decision making. Both direct and indirect channels are increasingly becoming important as SAS continues to expand its footprint in the software market."

Goodnight said Hagström’s experience in growing business in emerging markets and identifying strong leadership to run the local operations made him an ideal successor to Cooke. “Mikael has my full confidence in bringing our international operation forward,” Goodnight said.

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