OpenAI names a new sales chief for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Central Europe

A new face for a regional push

OpenAI has appointed Arjan van Staveren as Head of Sales for the DACH region and Central Europe. DACH is shorthand for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As ChannelPartner reported, he joins after a break, a trip around the world and a short stint at the robotics company RobCo.

His job is to grow the sales teams in Munich and Berlin significantly. OpenAI says he will work closely with companies across the region to understand their priorities, find concrete uses for AI that deliver visible value, and help them roll it out across the whole organization.

This is the latest step in a build-out that began in spring 2025 with a Munich office. OpenAI also announced then that it wanted to build a partner ecosystem, meaning a network of outside firms that help bring its products to customers. A second office, in Berlin, opened this year.

Why Germany matters to OpenAI

OpenAI describes Germany as one of its most important markets, and the figures it shares are its own claims. By weekly active ChatGPT users, Germany ranks among the top five countries worldwide and first in EMEA, the label for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The number of paid ChatGPT subscriptions in Germany has, according to the company, more than doubled compared with a year earlier. Germany is also said to be among the five leading markets worldwide for active API developers. The API is the technical doorway that lets software builders plug OpenAI's models into their own products.

The German team, OpenAI says, has grown to almost 100 people. That is a lot of staff for a market where, a little over a year ago, the company had no office at all.

Who Arjan van Staveren is

Van Staveren has almost 20 years of experience in business software, cloud-based data platforms and robotics. He is Dutch and became well known in Germany as the country manager at Snowflake, a cloud data company. There he built the German business from the very beginning.

Most recently he was Chief Revenue Officer at RobCo, a maker of autonomous industrial robots. A chief revenue officer is the executive responsible for bringing in sales. At RobCo he oversaw the company's business with large customers in Europe and the US. Earlier roles in senior sales positions included Bazaarvoice, Microsoft and Ciao.

OpenAI's VP of EMEA Sales, Ismail Elmas, said van Staveren brings wide experience in building teams and companies, and understands what organizations need in order to adopt new technology. He also said the focus is on turning Germany's potential into concrete results for customers.

What it signals, and what it does not

The announcement is narrow. It is a hiring story, not a product launch, and it says nothing about new features, prices or a specific partner programme. Anything beyond the facts above is our reading.

That reading is fairly plain: a dedicated regional sales leader usually points to a push toward business customers and resellers. That helps explain why a channel-focused outlet like ChannelPartner covered it. The source also mentions OpenAI's earlier partner plans, but gives no detail on how they are progressing.

For a company buying AI tools in the region, the practical effect could be more local attention. That might mean easier conversations about contracts, support and how to get a pilot project into everyday use. For IT consultants and resellers, it may mean a clearer person to call, though nothing in the announcement promises that.

What to watch next

The first sign will be whether the Munich and Berlin teams actually grow in the way OpenAI describes. The company has said it will expand them significantly, but gave no targets or timeline.

The second is whether the partner ecosystem takes visible shape, with named firms and clear terms. Until then, the story is mostly about intent: OpenAI wants to be present in the room where large German-speaking companies decide how to use AI, and it has hired someone who has done that kind of selling before.