Salesforce has appointed Natalia Escobedo as senior vice president and general manager for Iberia, a role from which she will lead the company’s strategy in Spain and Portugal. The executive joins after more than 11 years at Microsoft and succeeds Enrique Polo de Lara, who has led Salesforce’s Iberian subsidiary for more than a decade.
Natalia Escobedo’s appointment in 20 seconds
- Natalia Escobedo will be senior vice president and general manager of Salesforce Iberia.
- She succeeds Enrique Polo de Lara, who led the subsidiary for more than 12 years.
- She comes from Microsoft, where she worked for more than 11 years and led the public sector business in Spain.
- Salesforce wants to accelerate the adoption of agentic AI, data, and CRM in Iberia.
The move brings to Salesforce an executive with a long track record in the tech sector and experience with both private clients and public administrations. Escobedo previously worked at Microsoft, IBM, and Software AG, and has accumulated more than three decades of professional experience.
Her arrival also comes as Salesforce is focusing a growing share of its strategy on agentic artificial intelligence. The company is building its Agentforce offering around the idea that businesses and public administrations can incorporate AI agents connected to their applications, data, and customer management tools.
Escobedo will take on responsibility for growing this business in Spain and Portugal, in addition to the traditional areas of customer relationship management (CRM) and data.
From Microsoft to Salesforce After More Than 11 Years
A significant part of Natalia Escobedo’s recent career has been tied to Microsoft.
For more than 11 years she held various roles within the US tech giant. Over the last five years she led the public sector business in Spain and was part of Microsoft Spain’s leadership team.
Her work in that area put her close to various technology modernization projects at Spanish public administrations, a market that is also of interest to Salesforce as it expands its data, CRM, and artificial intelligence platforms.
Previously, she had led Microsoft’s Business Applications division, held responsibilities over the Azure business, and managed sales aimed at public administration and the healthcare sector.
Escobedo is thus leaving a company she has been associated with for more than a decade to join one of its major competitors in certain areas of enterprise software and the cloud.
In her public message announcing the move, the executive noted that she is joining Salesforce at a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping both organizations’ internal processes and their relationships with customers.
Escobedo herself places AI, data, and business transformation among the main areas she will work on during this new stage.
Her professional career began well before Microsoft.
Escobedo worked for around ten years at IBM as a technical consultant and sales specialist. During that period, she took part in several international projects, including the development of information systems related to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
She later joined Software AG.
At that company she held various sales roles before becoming senior sales director for the financial sector and public administration, and was also part of Software AG’s leadership team in Spain.
Salesforce Iberia’s new head holds a degree in Business Administration, specializing in Quantitative Economics and Analysis, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Salesforce Wants to Accelerate Agentic AI in Iberia
The appointment comes as Salesforce is trying to move the concept of artificial intelligence agents from technology demos into companies’ everyday processes.
Agentforce holds a central place in that strategy.
The platform allows companies to build agents capable of using business information and carrying out certain tasks related to customer service, sales, marketing, and other corporate processes.
The company uses the term “agentic enterprise” to describe organizations where employees and AI agents work together. It’s a Salesforce marketing term rather than a standardized technology category.
That distinction matters, because much of the next phase of enterprise AI will depend precisely on proving that agents can produce measurable results beyond pilot projects.
Salesforce wants Escobedo to drive that adoption among Spanish and Portuguese businesses and public bodies.
Marco Hernansanz, executive vice president and head of Salesforce for Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, highlighted the new leader’s experience in digital transformation and artificial intelligence projects, as well as her track record leading teams.
The company hopes to leverage that profile to expand the use of its platform among businesses and public administrations.
For Escobedo, artificial intelligence is changing the way organizations work and how they relate to their customers. The executive has placed helping companies through that transition, by combining data and AI, among her objectives.
A Handover After More Than 12 Years
The appointment also marks a major change in the leadership of Salesforce Iberia.
Escobedo succeeds Enrique Polo de Lara, who has spent more than 12 years leading the subsidiary in Spain and Portugal — a tenure comparable to the long stints other major enterprise software vendors’ regional leaders have had, such as SAP’s recent leadership reshuffle in Spain.
That’s an especially long tenure for the regional leadership of a major tech company, and it coincides with a considerable transformation of Salesforce’s own business.
The company has moved from being identified mainly with its cloud CRM platform to offering a much broader portfolio spanning data, integration, collaboration, automation, and artificial intelligence.
The handover comes precisely as generative AI and agents are forcing major enterprise software vendors to rethink how their applications are used.
Until now, employees interacted directly with an interface to look up customers, prepare reports, update sales opportunities, or manage tickets.
The agentic model aims to delegate part of those operations to systems capable of interpreting a request and using different tools to complete it.
The challenge for Salesforce, and for the market as a whole, will be bringing that capability into enterprise environments while maintaining controls over permissions, data, security, and human oversight.
Escobedo’s experience in cloud, enterprise applications, and the public sector fits that scenario. Her time leading Microsoft’s work with public administrations also gives her knowledge of a segment where issues such as data protection, regulatory compliance, and technology procurement particularly shape the adoption of artificial intelligence.
Her arrival now opens a new chapter for Salesforce in Spain and Portugal, with the expansion of Agentforce and customers’ shift toward agent-based models among the company’s stated top priorities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Salesforce’s new general manager in Spain?
Natalia Escobedo has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of Salesforce Iberia, making her responsible for the company’s business in Spain and Portugal.
Which company does Natalia Escobedo come from?
She comes from Microsoft, where she worked for more than 11 years. Over the last five years she led the public sector business in Spain and was part of Microsoft Spain’s leadership team.
Who is Natalia Escobedo replacing at Salesforce?
She is replacing Enrique Polo de Lara, who led Salesforce Iberia for more than 12 years.
What goals will Natalia Escobedo have at Salesforce Iberia?
Her responsibilities will include developing the growth strategy in Spain and Portugal and accelerating the adoption of agentic artificial intelligence, data technologies, and CRM.