Salesforce has announced the appointment of Sabastian Niles as president and chief legal officer, overseeing Salesforce’s global legal and government affairs organizations.
Niles will report to chair and CEO Marc Benioff and serve on the company’s executive leadership team.
He joins Salesforce from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he was a partner working with US and overseas companies, focused on shareholder and stakeholder engagement, corporate governance, M&A, enterprise risk oversight and technology trends, sustainability, investments and strategic transactions and partnerships.
Niles has a proven track record of helping companies, their management teams and their boards lead and navigate corporate transformations and complex opportunities, creating value through innovation, building stakeholder trust and advancing world-class cultures while protecting companies against undue risk.
As one of the highest-ranked attorneys in the country, Niles earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and undergraduate degrees in economics, finance and decision and information sciences from the University of Maryland at College Park.
He is also the founder of the Harvard Association of Law and Business and its Advisory Board, a member of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Board of Advisors, an elected Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel and a member of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
In addition, Niles is also a director of the non-profit organization Literacy Partners which focuses on empowering families, caregivers and children through the power of literacy, education and language skills.
Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce, said: “I’m thrilled to welcome Sabastian to Salesforce as part of our world-class management team. He’s a phenomenal executive and individual and brings a wealth of knowledge, leadership and expertise to our company.”
Upon joining the organization, Sabastian Niles, said: “It’s an honor to join Salesforce, a company I’ve long admired for its industry leadership and values. I’m excited to help Salesforce and all its stakeholders continue to innovate, grow and transform for the future.”
Niles joins Salesforce at an opportune moment as the company beat its revenue guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2024, ending April 30, 2023, with total revenue of $8.25bn, an increase of 11 percent year-on-year, topping the $8.18bn expected by analysts and delivering on Benioff’s promise of profitability.
