Sapiens Leadership

Mike joined Sapiens as Executive Chairman in December 2025. Mike is a globally recognized leader in the enterprise software industry, with over three decades of experience. He is the Executive Chairman of SYSPRO, a leading provider of digital manufacturing technology, recently acquired by Advent. Previously, Mike was CEO of Unit4, a global cloud ERP software vendor, formerly owned by Advent, and President of SAP SuccessFactors, a provider of cloud HCM solutions. 

Mike is an active advisor, board member, and private investor to a number of technology companies. He plays a key role in mentoring startups with scaling and innovating and has significant experience in building teams and championing diversity. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.  

Douglas Hallstrom joined Advent in 2014 and leads the firm’s technology investment team in Europe. He is passionate about driving transformative change and growth in the enterprise technology sector.  

In addition to his experience at Advent, Douglas has supported the executive team at Unit4 (a prior Advent portfolio company)  and run a start-up. Earlier in his career, he worked at Bain & Company in London and Toronto. Douglas received a BSc, with First Class Honors, from the University of St. Andrews. 

Nika Kucifer joined Advent in 2019 and is a Vice President in London. She advises on investments in the technology sector. 

Prior to joining Advent, Nika worked at Hg Capital, where she was an Investment Associate covering software and tech-enabled services opportunities. Before that, Nika worked as an Investment Banking Analyst within the Industrials team at Deutsche Bank, and completed internships in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in both London and Frankfurt. Nika graduated with a First Class Honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. 

Paul Wheeler joined Sapiens in December 2025 as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Sapiens Board. Paul is a global executive, recognised leader and consistent value creator with 30+ years’ experience leading technology businesses, predominantly within the private equity environment. Paul has held previous CFO roles, including at Operative and Trema, and has also held roles as Senior Operating Partner at the private equity fund Francisco Partners, Managing Director at ION Trading and Chief Operating Officer at Efront.  

With significant prviate equity experience, Paul has managed global teams and transformations, including large-scale change. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. 

Guy Bernstein is a seasoned technology executive with extensive experience in leading global software companies.

Guy joined Magic Software Enterprises in 1999 as Chief Financial Officer and was later appointed CFO of Emblaze. In 2006, he led Emblaze’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Formula Systems and was appointed CEO of Emblaze and a director at Formula Systems. In 2008, he became CEO of Formula Systems and subsequently also CEO of Magic Software Enterprises.Under his leadership, the company completed over 100 mergers and acquisitions.

Guy holds a degree in Accounting and Economics from the Academic College of Management and is a certified public accountant (CPA).

Abhishek Chawdhry joined ADIA in 2020 and covers the technology sector in EMEA for the Private Equities Department.  

Prior to joining ADIA, Abhishek worked at multiple private equity firms in London such as G Square Capital, Eight Roads, and Summit Partners covering the healthcare and technology sectors. Before that, Abhishek worked in investment banking at Sagent Advisors (now part of DC Advisory) in San Francisco. 

Abhishek has an MBA from INSEAD, and a BA in Economics and a BS in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Ahmed AlMehairbi joined ADIA in 2014 and is an Investment Manager in the Private Equities Department, covering EMEA.  

Ahmed has worked on a broad range of private equity transactions spanning multiple sectors and markets across the full investment lifecycle. 

Ahmed graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. 

Franck joined SAP in 2009 and was appointed President of Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2010, overseeing a P&L of €10 billion. He went on to serve as Global Chief Customer Officer, then led R&D for all ERP and Industry Solutions, managing a team of 16,000 engineers.

Franck began his career in 1987 when he founded an ERP company in France. A decade later, following its acquisition by Intentia, a Swedish ERP company, he held several senior roles including General Manager of EMEA and EVP of Sales Worldwide. When Intentia merged with Lawson Software in 2006, he relocated to the United States to lead the North American and EMEA organizations.

Franck studied mathematics and electronic engineering at Tel Aviv University. He currently serves as Chairman of CYE, a cybersecurity company in Israel; Chairman of GoCardless, a UK payment platform; and Vice Chairman of Aareon, a German ERP company. Previously, he was a board advisor to Workday and UiPath.

Mike joined Sapiens as Executive Chairman in December 2025. Mike is a globally recognized leader in the enterprise software industry, with over three decades of experience. He is the Executive Chairman of SYSPRO, a leading provider of digital manufacturing technology, recently acquired by Advent. Previously, Mike was CEO of Unit4, a global cloud ERP software vendor, formerly owned by Advent, and President of SAP SuccessFactors, a provider of cloud HCM solutions. 

Mike is an active advisor, board member, and private investor to a number of technology companies. He plays a key role in mentoring startups with scaling and innovating and has significant experience in building teams and championing diversity. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.  

Paul Wheeler joined Sapiens in December 2025 as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Sapiens Board. Paul is a global executive, recognised leader and consistent value creator with 30+ years’ experience leading technology businesses, predominantly within the private equity environment. Paul has held previous CFO roles, including at Operative and Trema, and has also held roles as Senior Operating Partner at the private equity fund Francisco Partners, Managing Director at ION Trading and Chief Operating Officer at Efront.  

With significant prviate equity experience, Paul has managed global teams and transformations, including large-scale change. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. 

James Hannay joined Sapiens in December 2025. James is a global transformation executive recognized for scaling commercial organizations and accelerating revenue growth. With experience leading global GTM strategy, sales, marketing, and P&L operations across the globe, James has built high-performing, customer-centric teams for both multinationals and high-growth VC/PE-backed software companies. 

Previously, he served as Chief Growth Officer at HCL Software, where he was responsible for net new business, existing customers and recurring revenue worldwide. Before that, he served as EVP & GM at Alight Solutions, where he revitalized a declining sales organization to deliver growth and investor confidence ahead of the company’s public listing. Prior to that, he held senior GM roles at Infor, leading cloud transformation and major enterprise SaaS migrations, including record-breaking strategic wins. With a unique blend of international commercial and management experience, James has led enterprise software and cloud functions across Europe, the US and APAC. He is based in the US. 

Dr. Ernesto Marinelli joined Sapiens in December 2025. Ernesto is a global executive who has driven high-impact transformations across sales, services, product and development organizations. With deep HR expertise in his 30-year career, he builds scalable, people-first strategies that fuel growth and innovation. Most recently, Ernesto was Chief People Officer at Aareon, an Advent-backed company, and previously he was Senior Vice President and Head of Global People Success Services at SAP.  

Ernesto combines emotional intelligence, commercial acumen and digital fluency to help organizations navigate change and drive lasting success. He has PhD in German Linguistics from the University of Würzburg. 

Glen Ceniza joined Sapiens in January 2026 as Chief Technology Officer. Glen is a global technology executive and accomplished leader with 25+ years of experience leading large scale product, engineering, and cloud organizations within the private equity software space. He is expert in driving highly advanced innovation with cloud-native and AI-first technology platforms across large scale product portfolios, and has significant offshore/nearshore establishment experience across US, India, Israel, and Europe.

Glen joined Sapiens from Operative where he led the technology organization with over 700 engineers and 50+ product leaders. Previous to that, he was Global Vice President, Product and Engineering at JDA/BlueYonder. He has held several other technology leadership positions in software companies. Glen holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Yariv Hasar is a seasoned executive leader with extensive and diversified experience of more than 30 years in technology management. Before joining Sapiens, Yariv served as the General Manager at Pagaya, a public traded fintech company, for which he led AI and ML research, engineering, data, product, and partnerships operations. Prior to that, he was at Amdocs, serving as the Global Delivery Division President, overseeing the company’s transformation projects, with global delivery organization, customer success unit, and account management organization worldwide. Yariv also held various technology and business-focused roles across multiple organizations. Yariv has bachelor’s degree (BSc) and master’s degree (MSc) in computer science from the Technion and Tel Aviv University respectfully, as well as a master’s in business administration (MBA) from Kellogg, Northwestern University.

Paul Hutchison joined Sapiens as Chief Delivery Success Officer. Paul is a global transformation executive with over 25 years of experience scaling enterprise operations, modernising digital ecosystems, and driving sustainable growth across financial services, healthcare, retail, and technology.

Working across North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe in both public and privately held companies, Paul has led global P&Ls, executed turnarounds that doubled revenue and expanded margins, and driven innovation through enterprise AI, RPA, and cloud-native platforms. His career includes senior delivery roles at BECU, IBM, E*Trade, and Northgate Arinso. Paul holds a Doctorate in Organisational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California.