Salesforce.com Names President Keith Block as COO

Cloud software company Salesforce.com said today it has named Keith Block, the former Oracle exec who joined as president and vice-chairman in 2013, as its COO.

Block has been operating as CEO Marc Benioff’s de facto No. 2 for more than two years. Today the company made it official by adding the COO title. Block is filling an opening left by George Hu, who famously rose from intern to COO over the course of 13 years and has now founded a new startup called Peer.

Block has gained a reputation for shaking up Salesforce with an emphasis on how it relates more closely to its customers. In a statement, Benioff said that Block’s expanded role will focus on fine-tuning how the customer-facing parts of the company and the operational sides work together.

Salesforce has grown like crazy over the course of its 17-year history. It finished its last fiscal year with revenue north of $6 billion and Benioff has promised to break the $8 billion mark by this time next year. The next goal is reaching the $10 billion mark faster than any other enterprise software company before it.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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