Natalie Hanson Leaving SAP
In May this year I celebrated my thirteen year anniversary with SAP. It’s a wonderful company and it has been a great ride, but the time has finally come for me to take on some new challenges. I have been blessed to work with a group of extremely talented and motivated people over the years. Saying goodbye to my amazing team and the many great people I’ve worked with at SAP will undoubtably be the hardest part of leaving SAP.
I’m leaving to work for a small management consultancy called ZS Associates, which is based in Evanston (just North of Chicago on Lake Michigan, brrrrr). ZS specializes in optimizing Sales & Marketing Operations for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. In the years since the company was formed by two professors from Northwestern, the organization has developed a set of software tools that they are now starting to productize and sell to their customers. In an effort to refine those offerings, they are building out the software development group under Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Bill Sudlow. Prior to joining ZS last year, Bill ran the TurboTax division at Intuit.
In my new role overseeing User Experience, I’ll be build out the UX team and working alongside the heads of product management and software development to shape a strategic plan for their product suite, with the ultimate goal of helping the company generate software license revenue. I am really looking for the opportunity to work closely with a new management team and new peers, to build out a team, and to take on some new challenges!
My partner and I are still absorbing the fact that that we have to sell a house, move, buy a house, and find a new school for our kids. No small feat for two working parents! But now that we have come to terms with the amount of work that needs to be done to relocate, we are finally starting to get excited about what comes next. I may be quiet during this crazy transition period, but I look forward to blogging about my adventures at ZS before too long!
Natalie Hanson 
WOW! Congrats, Nat! You’ll love Chicago. One of my favorite places ever.
Thanks Jen. Big change but we’re super excited! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your news here (and on anthrodesign) – I’ve always been so impressed with what you accomplished at SAP and so excited for you to take on a new challenge in a new town in a new organization. Yay!
Thanks Steve. 🙂
Congratulations Natalie, im based in Chicago too, so good luck and hoep to meet up at a meet up soon.