Oracle, Intuit veteran Sanket Atal joins Salesforce as India MD

Business strategist Sanket Atal will join Salesforce as senior vice president and managing director in Bengaluru, said the US customer-management software maker that called his appointment showing its "commitment and continued investment in India".

Atal, 53, was managing director at financial software firm Intuit India and group vice president at tech giant Oracle and he will join Salesforce on March 15. Atal will drive the next phase of growth for Salesforce in India by using his expertise in digital strategies to build breakthrough customer experiences, said the company. He will report to Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and chairperson, Salesforce India.

“These are exciting and challenging times for all of us. India is a strategic growth market for Salesforce and a world-class innovation and talent hub,” said Bhattacharya. “As we continue to grow and guide our customers through their digital transformation journey, Sanket’s (Atal) appointment is a reflection of our commitment and continued investment in India. We welcome Sanket to Salesforce and look forward to driving even greater innovation and success in this market.”

Salesforce has spread in India over the years, adding jobs, expanding offices and partner ecosystem. India is home to the second-highest Salesforce workforce outside of the US with over 4000 employees across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Salesforce competes Oracle, Amazon, Google and Microsoft in India.

“Salesforce has built a phenomenal cloud ecosystem of partners and customers in India,” said Atal. “I look forward to helping drive growth, innovation and customer success as well as delivering product innovation at a global scale, from right here in India.

Launched in 2016, the Salesforce Centre of Excellence (CoE) located in Hyderabad has been instrumental in fueling innovation globally. It is building end-to-end solutions for customers. These include some of the latest industry clouds - consumer goods, manufacturing, financial services for insurance and hyperforce - built at the CoE. 

“Given my passion and deep experience with the startup ecosystem, I am also excited to empower businesses of all sizes, particularly startups, to create future-ready solutions leveraging the Salesforce platform,” said Atal. “It’s an awesome time to be joining the company.”