Salesforce.com promotes EVP George Hu to COO post

Salesforce.com has elevated Executive Vice President George Hu to the role of chief operating officer, the company announced today.

Salesforce.com did not have a COO (in name at least) previously, which is a little peculiar for such a high-profile company. Hu will still report directly to larger-than-life Salesforce CEO and chairman Marc Benioff. (On a related note, Salesforce.com’s general manager and executive vice president Byron Sebastian will be speaking at CloudBeat 2011, VentureBeat’s upcoming cloud technology conference.)

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":349173,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"cloud,entrepreneur,","session":"A"}']

“George’s leadership over the past nine years has been key to driving salesforce.com’s growth to over a $2 billion run rate,” said Benioff, in a statement. “I look forward to seeing his vision and leadership as COO scale our growth toward $10 billion and beyond.”

Hu has worked for Salesforce.com since 2002 and has served in a variety of roles that have helped him prepare for the COO position. Previously, Hu was VP of product marketing, senior VP of applications, executive VP of products, and the company’s chief marketing officer. In the COO role, he will help manage all functions of the company, including technology, facilities, security, marketing and development.

Before Salesforce.com, Hu worked in consulting roles for Boston Consulting Group and North Point Communications. In terms of education, Hu has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.

CloudBeat 2011 takes place November 30 – December 1 at Hotel Sofitel in Redwood City, CA. Unlike any other cloud events, we’ll be focusing on 12 case studies where we’ll dissect the most disruptive instances of enterprise adoption of the cloud. These case studies will highlight the core components of the cloud revolution: security, collaboration, analytics, mobile usage, increased productivity, and integration. Join over 500 executives for two days packed with actionable lessons and networking opportunities as we define the key processes and architectures that companies must put in place in order to survive and prosper. Register here. Tickets are limited!