Maxwell Wessel
CEO of Degreed
Maxwell Wessel
CEO of Degreed
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Co-CEO
2024 - Current
Degreed is rethinking learning and talent for today's AI driven economy. I have the pleasure of leading a team of innovators and thought leaders in enterprise software as they seek to use one of the world's most innovative learning platforms as a lever to create career mobility for every individual in the workforce. By delivering all forms of learning through delightful experiences and building visibility into the skills that every learner develops over time, we're working alongside some of the world's most storied organizations to build a future where it's possible for people to be rewarded for the skills they develop regardless of where those skills were obtained.
Board Member
2022
Helping an immense team build a path towards success in a hybrid world of work. Through workforce analytics, ActivTrak supports more than 9,000 customers in delivering successful operations fit for the future of work.
Advisory Board
2024
Advisor to the CEO of Masterclass. Helping one of the world’s leading educational content producers support the strategic transformation of the world’s leading corporations.
Venture Partner
2013
Founding member of one of the nation's premier angel investment networks. Successfully sourced and led diligence on multiple deals. Initial investor and member of the Advisory Board to the NGVP national operating company. Personal Investments include: • Justworks • Trellus • Project44 • Statt • Dwellsy • Via.Work (Acquired) • Kasa • SpaceX • Fritz.ai (Acquired) • Gretel.ai • Walrus Health • Mighty Health • Outboundworks (Dissolved) • Everlywell • Convey (Acquired) • Trip Tribe (Acquired) • UrbanStems • Harvest.ai (Acquired) • Revmetrix (Acquired) • NGVP (Acquired) • Encore Alert (Acquired) • Spinnakr (Dissolved)
Executive Vice President, SAP Learning
2020 - 2024
Driving a SaaS transformation of SAP's nearly 500M USD education business to be digital first, learner obsessed. Responsible for educating, enabling, and driving transformation for SAP's customers, partners, developers and own employees. Leading one to the industry's best education organizations, with more than 1500 engineers, consultants, trainers, and operators globally. Tripled active learners in 3 years, while delivering industry leading margin improvement and consistent double digit revenue growth. I also serve as Chief Learning Officer for SAP internally, where I have the opportunity to support a team of professionals transforming how we skill our own teams. Through a mixture of innovation and partnership with organizations like Pluralsight, Lightcast, IMD, and many more, we have transformed learning at SAP to be higher quality, more personalized, and higher volume. Member of SAP’s Global Executive Team; the top 30 employees operating Europe’s largest software company.
Managing Director, SAP Labs
2018 - 2021
Managing Director for SAP Labs in the United States with direct responsibility for operations supporting our more than 4500 employees in California.
Senior Vice President, SAP New Ventures & Technologies
2019 - 2020
SAP's most senior development leader responsible for new product development. With an incredible team of more than 500 engineers, designers, and product leaders, we launched and grew many commercial products; including the products that became SAP Signavio Process Insights and SAP Build. Member of SAP’s Senior Executive Team; the top 200 employees operating Europe’s largest software company.
Vice President & General Manager, SAP.iO
2016 - 2018
I led SAP's incubator globally. In this role, the team I led was chartered with building the next big business for SAP. I scaled our efforts from 7 employees to 90 located in hubs around the globe. Our products were adopted by more than 2000 organizations and tens of thousands of net new users.
Vice President, Sapphire Ventures
2015 - 2016
Investment professional at Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures). As a member of the growth investment team, I covered analytics, supply chain software, and network enabled SaaS. To support portfolio company success, my team built Sapphire Ventures initial SaaS operations benchmarking services, operational executive networks, and CIO summit.
Senior Director, Corporate Strategy
2013 - 2015
Responsible for Innovation Strategy at SAP. In this role, I drove many of SAP's approaches to product investments, partnerships, and commercial changes. Most notably, I helped create the plan for SAP's Internet of Things organization, our development of SAP.iO's operating plan, our creation of a startup sales and support program globally, and a global scouting organization.
Faculty
2015 - 2023
Designer and instructor of the Industrialist's Dilemma, a second year strategy course addressing the growing importance of information economics on corporate decision making. Over 8 years, the Industrialist's Dilemma became one of Stanford's most sought after courses. Currently designing our next course in Executing Change.
Senior Fellow
2011 - 2013
Appointed to Clayton Christensen’s Harvard Business School think tank on innovation theory. Conducted field and academic research surrounding dynamic competition, investing, and product development.
Founder & CEO
2009 - 2012
CEO of an early stage startup. Responsible for fundraising, hiring, and sales. Operated a multi sided platform profitably within New England for two years before exit.
Senior Associate
2007 - 2009
Designed, recommended, and implemented strategies to solve various management issues for a range of Fortune 500 clients. Recognized globally for expertise in New Product Development and Multi-channel Sales within the BCG Retail and CPG practice area.