Salesforce promotes former BT chief in management shake-up
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Salesforce has promoted former BT chief executive Gavin Patterson to a top role as part of a wider shake-up of its management team.
Patterson, who joined the business software firm in September last year, will now serve as president and chief executive of Salesforce International.
He will be based in Salesforce’s UK headquarters in the City, and will oversee the company’s business in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin American and Asia Pacific.
It came as the San Francisco-based firm announced that Keith Block had stepped down as co-chief executive, making Marc Benioff the sole boss.
“Gavin’s global leadership will help us continue to deliver customer success in these important markets,” Benioff said in a statement.
Patterson stepped down from BT in January last year after a turbulent six-year stint at the helm that included a blockbuster takeover of mobile operator EE, a costly move into football broadcasting, an accounting scandal in Italy and the spin-off of BT’s broadband division Openreach.
In addition to his new role at Salesforce, Patterson has taken up a number of advisory roles and chairs London-based consultancy Elixirr.
He is one of two major British hires for Salesforce, which last year tapped Virgin Money boss Jayne-Anne Gadhia as its UK chief executive.
The software firm last year splashed out more than $16bn (£12.3bn) on acquisitions, including a bumper takeover of Tableau, as it looks to fend off competition from bigger rivals such as Oracle and SAP.
Salesforce last night forecast first-quarter revenue of between $4.88bn and $4.89bn, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $4.84bn.