Salesforce hires ex-Microsoft exec to lead Agentforce engineering amid string of departures

After nearly three decades at Microsoft, cybersecurity executive Krishna Kumar Parthasarathy has announced he is joining Salesforce as executive vice president of engineering.

Parthasarathy is part of a wave of senior Microsoft security leaders who have departed this summer for executive roles at major tech competitors, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), ServiceNow and Salesforce.

In his new role, Parthasarathy will oversee engineering teams for core Salesforce products and features, including Agentforce, Agentforce Voice, Digital Channels, and Service Cloud.

“Salesforce sits at the exact center of enterprise trust and customer context. In an agentic world, that foundation is everything,” he said on LinkedIn.

Other high-profile departures in recent months from Microsoft’s security division include:

• Rohan Kumar, former corporate vice president of Microsoft Security, who joined Salesforce as president and chief platform officer.
• Rudra “Rudy” Mitra, who spent more than 27 years at Microsoft — most recently leading its Purview data-security business — and joined AWS as vice president of security services.
• Rahul Prakash, former head of product for Microsoft Security Copilot, who joined ServiceNow as vice president of product management in identity security.
• Vasu Jakkal, former corporate vice president of security, compliance, identity, management and privacy, who stepped down after six years and has not yet announced her next move.
• Joy Chik, former president of identity and network access, who announced her retirement in April.

The leadership shifts follow a broader organizational shakeup within Microsoft’s security business under Hayete Gallot, who returned to the company from Google in February to run the group. Naseem Tuffaha also returned to Microsoft last month to take over the corporate VP role vacated by Rohan Kumar.