The 10 Coolest Customer Relationship Management CEO’s of 2019
Although a CEO rarely needs a formal introduction, they deserve one nonetheless. They set the company direction, define the company’s culture and values, and build the entire leadership team. The CEO guides the company to see its goals fulfilled–which is essential for a market as demanding as CRM.
Each CEO brings their own set of skills and perspective that can greatly influence their solutions and services. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 CRM CEO’s of 2019. We list them below, by company name in alphabetical order.
Bastin Gerald | Apptivo
Bastin Gerald is the founder of Apptivo, and serves as its current CEO. Before Apptivo, he spent five years at Cashedge, working on applications and technology used by eight of the top ten US banks and major brokerage firms. Mr. Gerald also has eight years of experience at Oracle, where he created applications for supply chain management, product lifecycle management, and financials. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, and earned his MBA in General Management from the University of Pennsylvania.
Girish Mathrubootham | Freshworks
Girish Mathrubootham founded Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk) with his partner, Shan Krishnasamy. Mr. Mathrubootham currently serves as the company CEO. Before founding Freshworks, he spent several years at Zoho Corporation. He served as Director of Product Management for two years, and Vice President of Product Management for three years. He holds a BE in Electrical & Electronics from Shanmugha Academy, and earned his MBA in Marketing from the University of Madras.
Brian Halligan | HubSpot
Brian Halligan is co-founder and CEO of HubSpot. Before his work with HubSpot, Mr. Halligan served as a Venture Partner at Longworth Ventures, and VP of Sales at Groove Networks, later acquired by Microsoft. He has also served as Senior Vice President at PTC. Mr. Halligan was named a Top-Rated CEO by Glassdoor in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. He has also been listed by Comparably as one of the Top 5 Best CEOs of a Large Company in 2018, and one of the Top 5 Best CEOs for Women and for Diversity in 2018.
Marc Benioff & Keith Block | Salesforce
Marc Benioff is Chairman, co-CEO, and Founder of Salesforce. Under his leadership, Salesforce has become the fastest-growing top-five enterprise software company and one of the top providers of CRM solutions. Since its founding in 1999, Salesforce is now a Fortune 500 company with more than 30,000 employees. Before launching Salesforce, Mr. Benioff spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, becoming the youngest vice president in company history. Mr. Benioff was named “Innovator of the Decade” by Forbes and was ranked #3 on Fortune’s 2017 “Businessperson of the Year.”
Keith Block is co-CEO of Salesforce and serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Since joining the company in June 2013, Mr. Block has served as Vice Chairman, President, Director, and COO of the company. He is currently a member of the Business Roundtable, the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, and the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable. He is also a governor of the World Economic Forum’s Information Technology Community. Before joining Salesforce, Mr. Block served as Executive Vice President of North America Sales and Consulting at Oracle.
Charles Phillips | Infor
Charles Phillips joined Infor in 2010 and currently serves as the company’s CEO. Before working at Infor, Mr. Phillips was President of Oracle Corporation and a member of its Board of Directors. Currently, Mr. Phillips serves on the Boards of Viacom Corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Council of Foreign Relationships. He also served on President Obama’s Economic Recovery Board. Outside of his entrepreneurial experience, Mr. Phillips served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines at Camp Lejeune.
Anthony Smith | Insightly
Anthony Smith is the founder of Insightly and currently serves as the company CEO. Prior to founding Insightly, Mr. Smith worked as a consultant for IBM, and as a software engineer for global mining consultancy Snowden. Mr. Smith built the first version of Insightly in six months from home, and has previous experience designing and building customer relationship management software for enterprise use.
Mark Hurd & Safra A. Catz | Oracle
Mark Hurd is CEO of Oracle and also serves as a member of the company’s board of directors. His responsibilities include managing corporate direction and strategy and facilitating company activity in consulting, sales, marketing, alliances and channels, and support. In 2007, Mr. Hurd was recognized by Fortune magazine as one of its 25 Most Powerful People in Business, and he has been named multiple times by Business 2.0 magazine as one of the 50 Who Matter. In 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle named him CEO of the year.
Safra A. Catz has served as CEO of Oracle since 2014 and a member of the Board of Directors since 2011. She has also previously served as President, as the company’s chief financial officer, and has held various other positions since 1999. Ms. Catz currently serves as a director of The Walt Disney Company, and previously served as a director of HSBC Holdings.
Craig Charlton | SugarCRM
As CEO of SugarCRM, it is Craig Charlton’s responsibility to lead all facets of the company, from setting a correct vision and strategic direction to making sure day-to-day operations are running smoothly. Before joining SugarCRM, Mr. Charlton served as CEO of Oildex, a financial automation software and services provider later acquired by Drillinginfo. Mr. Charlton also served as CEO of Abila, a financial and CRM provider which was acquired by Community Brands.