Dive Brief:
- Salesforce on Wednesday announced it had appointed Robin Washington, who has served as one of its board directors since 2013, to take on the role of chief operating and financial officer.
- Washington’s newly created “COFO” role will become effective on March 21, according to a press release. Brian Millham, the current COO at Salesforce, will retire on May 1 after a 25-year career at the tech giant, transitioning into an advisory role, the company said. Amy Weaver, the current CFO of the company, announced last year that she would be stepping down.
- The transition comes as Salesforce is focused on accelerating adoption of “Agentforce,” a suite of artificial intelligence “agents” designed to perform workplace tasks. “As we look ahead, I’m excited to work with Robin, in this newly created role, and with our incredible Salesforce executive bench, to bring this significant Agentforce opportunity to life,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in the release.
Dive Insight:
Salesforce’s decision to combine the roles of CFO and COO highlights a growing trend. Other companies that have taken this step in recent years include Qualcomm, Sony and Claire’s.
“CFOs who focus purely on financial reporting and compliance risk being overshadowed by those who can directly impact operations and growth,” Shawn Cole, president at the executive search firm Cowen Partners, told CFO Dive. “The modern CFO must now demonstrate strategic, operational, and leadership capabilities beyond traditional finance.”
While the move signals confidence in integrated leadership, it could create long-term succession risks, he said. “A blended CFO-COO role means fewer specialized C-suite executives, which may limit the bench strength for future CEO transitions.”
Washington, 62, is set to receive an initial base salary of $1.1 million in her new role, according to a securities filing. She will also receive a cash sign-on bonus of $8.5 million, aimed to compensate her for “unvested equity awards and other compensation that will be forfeited in connection with her appointment,” according to the filing.
She has played a “critical role in Salesforce’s financial and strategic evolution” as a board member, the filing said, adding that she will continue to serve on the board in her new role.
Washington also currently serves on the board of directors of Alphabet, Honeywell International and Vertiv Holdings.
She previously occupied CFO seats at biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences and enterprise software provider Hyperion Solutions.
In her new role, she will lead Salesforce’s “next phase of transformation — driving profitable growth, operational excellence, and financial strategy — while accelerating the transformation of every company into an Agentforce company, in the new agentic era,” according to the Wednesday release.
Salesforce unveiled Agentforce in September, saying that it represents the next wave of AI innovation. At the time, Benioff said the company was seeking to deploy one billion agents by the end of 2025.
