"Turning Bold Ideas into Reality with a Purpose-Driven Mindset" by Eric Verniaut Executive Vice President SAP for EMEA, MEE AND GREATER CHINA SAP Executive Vice President Mr. Eric Verniaut visited Prince Sultan University (PSU) on 10th Oct 2018 and engaged with faculty and students at College of Computer and Information Sciences (CCIS). Mr. Eric was welcomed by Dr. Mohammed AlKanhal, Dean CCIS. He presented a talk titled "Turning Bold Ideas into Reality with a Purpose-Driven Mindset" at the PSU SAP Next Gen Lab. Eric Verniaut joined SAP in November 2011 to lead the newly created “Next Generation Services organization". In 2017 he was appointed Chief Business Officer for EMEA, MEE and Greater China reporting into the SAP board. Eric presented a brief note on why the SAP Next-Gen Labs are an important initiative and some of the roles they can fulfil within the SAP strategy but also in a broader social responsibility context. He highlighted figures on the speed at which SAP is including AI in its core products and discussed their future plans. He also presented examples of the applications of machine learning and block chain which SAP is launching and highlighted the significance of an Intelligent Enterprise and its constituents. The different innovation horizons and some of the challenges SAP is trying to help more meaningful an economically impactful innovation. "DATA IS THE NEW OIL OF DIGITAL ECONOMY" said Eric is in talk. Dr. Ahmed Sameh, Chair Information Systems Department welcomed the guest and the attendees and presented a brief summary of PSU-SAP activities in the past until date. Students who have taken and currently taking SAP S/4 Hana program at the College also attended the talk. Dr. Tanzila Saba, Associate Chair Information Systems Department showed keen interest in collaborating with SAP research projects and initiatives. The event was also attended by Dr. Banda Ramadan, Program Coordinator, Software Engineering, Dr. Soufiana Mallik, Program Coordinator Computer Science, Members of Machine learning research group and other faculty from CCIS.