Salesforce’s chief trust officer is leaving less than 18 months in the role, internal memo shows

• Salesforce Chief Trust Officer Vikram Rao is leaving the company, according to an internal memo.
• Salesforce’s president said Rao is taking a “new opportunity” and his last day is Oct. 15.
• Rao started the role in June 2022 and just returned from a sabbatical, a person familiar said.

According to an internal memo obtained by Insider, Salesforce Chief Trust Officer Vikram Rao is leaving the company after less than 18 months in the position.

According to a Slack post by Salesforce President Srinivas Tallapragada on an internal channel for technology, product, and marketing employees, Rao is leaving for a “new opportunity,” and his last day will be Oct. 15.

Rao, who joined Salesforce in 2017, recently returned from a leave of absence. Rao stated in an internal Slack message viewed by Insider earlier this year that he would be taking time off from June 3 to September 5. In June 2022, he was appointed chief trust officer.

“We’re grateful to Vikram for his many contributions to Salesforce and the entire security industry during his time here,” a Salesforce spokesperson said in a statement released after the article was published. “We wish him the very best.”

When Salesforce hired Rao as chief trust officer, a role similar to a “chief information security officer” at other companies, the company stated that the role was critical and that Rao would help “customers navigate an escalating threat landscape, deploy security best practices, and empower organizations everywhere to leverage trust as a key enabler of innovation in a digital economy.”

According to the memo, Salesforce Chief Technology Officer and cofounder Parker Harris will fill Rao’s position while Salesforce searches for a replacement. According to the earlier memo, Harris assumed Rao’s responsibilities during his sabbatical. Until then, Rao’s team will report directly to Tallapragada.

Security Assurance Senior Vice President Neil Storey leads the team, which also includes Insider Trust SVP Kelly McCracken, Trust Governance, Risk, and Compliance SVP Laura Sawka, and Government Cloud Engineering and Operations SVP Jim Weise.

Rao is at least the third, and possibly the most visible, cybersecurity executive to leave Salesforce in the last year. Others who have left include Executive Vice President Mark Carter, whose responsibilities included cybersecurity, and Taher Elgamal, chief technology officer of security, who left in February.

Rao did not respond immediately to a request for comment.