Salesforce gets Arundhati Bhattacharya as India chief

AMERICAN business group Salesforce said on Wednesday (18) that former Indian banker Arundhati Bhattacharya would be one of its top executives.

The global giant in CRM said Bhattacharya, 64, will join the group on April 20 as chairperson and chief executive of its India division.

She is expected to be tasked with supporting the global giant to expand its services quickly in India, as it is one of its fastest-growing foreign markets for the San Francisco-based business.

Bhattacharya earlier served as the chairperson of India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) for over 40 years.

The first female chairman of SBI also oversees financial services group SWIFT India

In 2018, she joined the board of directors of three Indian companies -- Wipro Limited, Reliance Industries Limited and Piramal Group.

In her new role, Bhattacharya will report to Ulrik Nehammer, general manager of Salesforce in the Asia-Pacific region.

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

“India is an important growth market for Salesforce and a world-class innovation and talent hub, and Arundhati’s leadership will guide our next phase of growth, customer success and investment in the region”.

Salesforce offers a range of cloud services to its customers in the south Asian country, where it has over one million developers and more Trailhead users than in any other market outside of the US.

The company competes with local players Zoho and Freshworks, among others.

The company said it expects to add 3,000 jobs in India in the next three years.

Bhattacharya said: “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”.