Salesforce executive Denise Dresser has been appointed as Slack’s new chief executive officer effective immediately, marking the firm’s third CEO since it was acquired by Salesforce in 2020.
Mark Benioff, co-founder and chief executive, Salesforce revealed the news on Monday.
Dresser will succeed Lidaine Jones, Slack’s most recent CEO, whose appointment as CEO of dating app Bumble was announced at the beginning of the month, effective January 2, 2024.
It’s been just under a year since the last c-suite overhaul at Slack, with December 2022 seeing previous Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield stepping down within a week of Salesforce’s previous co-CEO Bret Taylor’s departure. The c-suite exit on-mass was said to be unconnected, however. Notably, Taylor had led Salesforce’s $27.7bn purchase of the enterprise messaging platform two years prior.
Dresser brings over 12 years of experience as a “longtime” Salesforce executive, most recently serving as president of accelerated industries.
In a social media post, Benioff said: “I couldn’t be more excited to share the news that Denise Dresser is our new CEO of Slack. Denise is an incredible business leader who has excelled at every level in her career at Salesforce. Her record of success, most recently as president of accelerated industries and before that as EVP, enterprise sales, includes driving some of our most important customer success ever.
“Denise is a collaborative technology leader who brings teams together and has inspired me and so many of us with her deep commitment to our values and to our customers and to the spirit of innovation.”
Dresser said: “Well before Salesforce acquired Slack, I was a fan. Now that I’ve worked on the platform for three years and seen its transformational power, I’m its biggest advocate. It’s truly made work simpler, more pleasant, and more productive. I cannot wait to dive in with the team and help even more companies change the way they work with Slack.
“Thank you, Lidiane Jones for your leadership over the last year and trust in me to take this next step. You’ve laid an incredible foundation that sets Slack up for success for years to come. It’s an honor to move this work forward.”
