Cloud-based software and CRM giant, Salesforce announced it has tapped one of India’s most respected fintech leaders, Arundhati Bhattacharya to join as chief executive officer of its Mumbai-based operations from April 20.
Arundhati was the first woman to head the State Bank of India where she commanded a range of roles over 36 years. She currently oversees the financial services group, SWIFT India as its chairperson. In her new role, she will report to Ulrik Nehammer, General Manager APAC and is charged with the task of scaling the global giant rapidly in India, one of Salesforce’s fastest-growing overseas markets.
Salesforce and its Indian customers and partners are expected to create more than $67 billion in revenues and 548,400 new direct jobs by 2024. The company’s current clients include CEAT, redBus, and Franklin Templeton. Over one million developers in India are trained on Salesforce through its online learning platform Trailhead, making this its largest user base outside of the US.
Gavin Patterson, president and chief executive officer of Salesforce International and former chief executive of BT, announced the hire. “Arundhati is an incredible business leader, and we are delighted to welcome her to Salesforce as chairperson and CEO,” he said in a statement. “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.”
At SBI, Arundhati led the merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank, which made it one of the largest 50 banks in the world at the time. Under her leadership, SBI also went through a technological transformation and launched its digital banking platform, Yono. Today, Yono has over 20 million customers, making it the largest consumer platform outside of the e-commerce sector in India.
India’s cloud application services market, which is the division that Salesforce operates within, is expected to grow by 21% to over $1.4 billion in 2020, according to a report from Gartner in November.
“Salesforce is a company with 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,” said Arundhati.
