8 Big Salesforce Hires In 2023 So Far From Oracle, AWS, Google, Microsoft

A CRO, GM and CMO are some of the biggest hires for Salesforce this year with track records from rivals.

A chief revenue officer with Oracle chops. A general manager from Microsoft. And a chief marketing officer who called Oracle and Amazon Web Services home.

These are some of the biggest hires for Salesforce this year with track records from some of the San Francisco-based customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor’s biggest rivals in cloud, enterprise applications and artificial intelligence (AI).

The hires come as these tech titans compete over a scarcity of technical talent to further practices around cloud, business applications and industry-focused products and services.

Salesforce Hires From Microsoft, AWS

Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all laid off tens of thousands of employees this year as customers slow spending on workplace technology since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the emerging field of generative AI has the potential to reinvigorate customer spending and appetite around technology.

Some of these major Salesforce hires from competitors include:

*Miguel Milano, president and CRO

*Param Kahlon, executive vice president and GM of automation and integration

*Ariel Kelman, president and CMO

Read on for more about Salesforce’s biggest hires so far this year from rivals.

Miguel Milano

Oracle veteran Miguel Milano returned to Salesforce in August as president and chief revenue officer after a break with data processing company Celonis.

According to a post on LinkedIn, Milano will help lead customers “into an incredible AI-first future, powered by Salesforce AI + Data + CRM.”

Milano also brings with him more than seven years with Oracle, according to his LinkedIn account. He left the vendor in 2011 with the title of senior vice president of Oracle Direct and a head of sales in Oracle’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division. In this role, he led 1,000 people across the phone and internet technologies inside sales organization.

His previous stint with Salesforce lasted more than eight years. Milano left Salesforce in 2020 with the title of president for the vendor’s international presence.

At Celonis, where Milano worked for more than three years starting in 2020, he worked as chief revenue officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

Josh Glynn

Salesforce hired Josh Glynn in July, taking its new vice president of real estate from Google.

Glynn worked at Google for more than 16 years, according to his LinkedIn account. He left Google with the title of workplace strategy director.

In this role, he led “a team that focuses on how to deliver spaces and services which enable high levels of creativity, productivity, and well-being across a diverse set of business units, locations, and users,” according to an online profile.

During his Google stint, he also “led large teams of employees and vendor partners in positions that included Workplace Programs, Real Estate and Workplace Services business Partner organization, and his current role in Workplace Strategy.”

He got his start with Google in 2007 as the global fitness program manager, according to his LinkedIn account.

Erin Traudt

In July, Salesforce recruited Oracle and AWS veteran Erin Traudt as its vice president of corporate marketing and chief of staff to the chief marketing officer.

Traudt previously worked at Oracle for less than a year, according to her LinkedIn account. She left the vendor with the title of vice president for marketing operations and analytics and chief of staff for the CMO.

In this role, she was “responsible for establishing the rhythm of the business, managing multi-million dollar budget, and developing executive communications,” according to her LinkedIn account. Traudt “led an organization of 180 employees spanning marketing operations, analytics & data science, merger & acquisition (M&A) integration, internal communications, and early career development teams.”

Traudt worked at AWS for about nine years. She left the vendor in 2021 with the title of senior manager of communications and employee experience for data center operations.

In this role, she “led a communications team of three responsible for informing and connecting datacenter employees across the world” and “managed content strategy across channels (e.g., newsletters, intranet, videos, virtual events, digital vehicles) to update employees on new requirements, process changes, and initiatives within the global Datacenter Planning, Delivery, and Operations (DC PDO) organization.”

Ariel Kelman

Oracle and AWS veteran Ariel Kelman returned to Salesforce in June, taking on the role of president and chief marketing officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

Kelman is “responsible for building the Salesforce brand and creating customer demand around the globe,” according to the vendor.

He worked at Oracle for more than two years as CMO and executive vice president, leaving the vendor in 2022. Business Insider said at the time that Kelman left Oracle due to a dispute with CEO Safra Catz. He told a podcast during his Oracle days that he ran an 1,800-person organization within the vendor with the goal of creating a “marketing organization that will take the company through the next 10 to 20 years.”

He worked at AWS for more than eight years, leaving in 2020 with the title of vice president of worldwide marketing. His hiring at Oracle was considered a coup at the time for the AWS rival playing catch up in cloud computing.

Kelman’s previous Salesforce stint lasted more than six years. He left the vendor in 2011 with the title of vice president of platform product marketing, according to his LinkedIn account.

Fernando Bermejo

Fernando Bermejo returned to Salesforce in June as a vice president of business operations, leaving behind Google.

Bermejo left Google with the title of director of strategy and operations for EMEA, according to his LinkedIn account.

His previous Salesforce stint last almost three years. He left Salesforce in 2020 with the title of head of business operations for Southern Europe.

Param Kahlon

Param Kahlon, a one-time general manager with Microsoft, joined Salesforce in May as an executive vice president and general manager of automation and integration, according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes more than five years with Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn account. Kahlon left Microsoft in 2018 with the title of general manager of Dynamics 365 customer engagement applications for sales, customer service and field service.

Kahlon came to the San Francisco-based customer relationship management (CRM) vendor after about five years with UiPath, according to his LinkedIn account. He left UiPath with the title of chief product officer.

At UiPath, he was responsible for “product strategy, technical alliances, and engineering operations,” according to an online profile.

Kendall Collins

Long before Kendall Collins’ return to Salesforce in April, taking on the role of chief business officer and chief of staff to CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff, he cut his teeth at Oracle.

Collins worked at Oracle for about a year, leaving in 1999 – the same year as Benioff – with the title of manager of product marketing for industry solutions, according to his LinkedIn account.

His work history after Oracle has included more than four years with Siebel Systems, leaving the company in 2003 with the title of competitive intelligence director. Oracle bought Siebel in 2006.

He worked at Salesforce for about 12 years, leaving the vendor in 2016 with the title of executive vice president and CEO of Salesforce Cloud.

In this role, Collins served as the “General Manager for core product business unit, next generation product design - Salesforce1 & Lightning, UX across Clouds, mobile technology, search, and data science,” according to his LinkedIn account.

He spent two years as chief marketing officer at AppDynamics – acquired by Cisco in 2017 – and served as general manager of enterprise technology at WeWork for about a year. He also served as CMO of Okta for about a year, leaving the security vendor in 2022.

Manish Menon

Manish Menon finished a nearly 17-year stint at Microsoft and joined Salesforce in January, according to his LinkedIn account.

Now Salesforce’s senior vice president of global sales compensation strategy and operations, Menon previously served as Microsoft’s senior director of sales incentive compensation.

Menon started at Microsoft in 2006 as a senior business strategy analyst, according to his LinkedIn account.