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Google Cloud UK boss boomerangs back to Salesforce to run freshly acquired Slack's EMEA ops

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in

Google Cloud's UK and Ireland boss Pip White has quit to return to Salesforce and take control of the EMEA operations at collaboration division Slack.

White was in place for just 15 months at Google, after being brought in by former Google Cloud Platform veep Chris Ciauri as one the generals for country operations in the region – he himself left the Chocolate Factory earlier this year.

It seems the lure to exit Google and become senior veep and GM for EMEA at Slack was too tempting for tech sales veteran White to turn down.

"In my new role as EMEA leader, I'm looking forward to the exciting product roadmap, of bringing the benefits of Slack + Salesforce to customers, new and existing, working in a new way," she said on LinkedIn.

Online collaboration took centre stage over the past 18 months as world+dog was forced to work remotely due to a certain virus, "and we aren't going back to how things were," said White.

Videoconferencing and collaboration suites from Microsoft, Slack and others aren't going away anytime soon. "Slack, as a member of the Salesforce family, will enable a new way of connecting with customers from anywhere, and how to leverage all data across the many different applications we use each day."

Salesforce paid out $27.7bn for Slack this July, and it will become the interface to its new owner's CRM platform. As of January, Slack had 156,000 organisations paying to use its wares, up by some 46,000 companies in a year. Over 1,000 of those customers paid more than $100,000.

As for Google, The Reg understands that Thomas Remy, UK and Ireland director of the Telecoms, Media and Entertainment & Digital Natives business, has stepped in an interim director until a permanent successor for White is found.

A spokesperson told us: "We can confirm that Pip White has decided to leave Google Cloud to pursue an external opportunity. Pip has been a great partner throughout her time here and we would like to thank her for her contributions to our company. We wish Pip well in her future endeavours."

Google Cloud Platform is the third biggest player in the infrastructure-as-a-service market, albeit some distance behind AWS and Microsoft. It underwent changes at the top earlier this year when former SAP exec Adaire Fox-Martin replaced Ciauri. ®

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