Salesforce hires former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as its India CEO

Salesforce, the cloud-based software company that hit revenue of $17 billion, has announced that Arundhati Bhattacharya, who retired from SBI in 2017 as its Chairperson, will be its new CEO in India. 

She had served in the State Bank of India for 40 years. 

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“Arundhati is an incredible business leader and we are delighted to welcome her to Salesforce as chairperson and CEO India,” said Gavin Patterson, president & CEO of Salesforce International.

In a press release, Bhattacharya said Salesforce has an impressive track record in supporting the digital transformation of its customers with world-class technology and there is an incredible opportunity for future growth in India.

Bhattacharya will report to Ulrik Nehammer, General Manager, APAC region. The company said she will oversee the growth strategy of the company and play an integral role in defining Salesforce’s relationship with the ecosystem of customers, partners and community.

Rod Bourgeois, head of research in DeepDive Equity Research, said, "Salesforce is a powerhouse in the massive trend toward cloud-based software, and hiring Bhattacharya to run Salesforce’s India operations is a significant event. It shows the integral importance of Indian talent to Salesforce and to the overall tech sector."

“Salesforce has also shown that it is guided by a core set of values and a mission to do good in the world and I could not be more excited to join the Salesforce team to ensure we capture this tremendous opportunity and contribute to India’s development and growth story in a meaningful way,” Arundhati said in the press statement. 

Salesforce is one of the largest cloud CRM companies that is proliferating the use of cloud-based software and kick-started the software-as-a-service revolution. 

According to Gartner, software-as-service is a $150 billion market. 

(Edited by Kanishk Singh)