By Business & Finance 
Pictured: A rendering of the rooftop gardens of Salesforce Tower Dublin, with view over the Liffey.
With a Californian-style launch announcement at the national convention centre, the software-as-a-service company unveiled big plans for doubling its Irish workforce.
After 19 years in Ireland, Salesforce unveiled plans for a new city centre campus and a dramatic increase in staffing to roll out over the next five years. Chris Ciauri, Executive Vice President, Salesforce EMEA, took to the stage of the Convention Centre Dublin to announce 1,500 new jobs–to add to the 1,400 that Salesforce currently employs here–to be rolled out over five years.
Pictured, L-R: Chris Ciauri, Executive Vice President & General Manager, EMEA, Salesforce; Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, TD; Mark Hawkins, President and Chief Financial Officer, Salesforce; Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar; Elizabeth Pinkham, Executive Vice President, Real Estate, Salesforce and Dr. David Dempsey, Ireland Country Leader, Salesforce.
Photo: Julien Behal.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was celebrating his 40th birthday on the same day as the single biggest jobs announcement in recent times, also took to the stage, proclaiming Ireland as the “tech capital of Europe with Dublin at its heart”.
Pictured: An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD speaking at the Salesforce Tower Dublin Press Conference. Photo: Julien Behal.
The Californian software-as-a-service company makes customer relationship management (CRM) and business cloud computing software, employing 34,000 globally.
The new roles will be in a variety of areas, including sales, customer support, engineering and business services, with hiring already under way.
David Dempsey, Irish Country Lead, told RTE News:
We have a proven tested business model that works here, a very loyal and very committed and very talented workforce, and it just was the natural home for us. This is a natural growth, it’s a huge number of jobs, but we’ve been growing for the 19 years we’ve been here, so this is a natural extension of that growth.”
Responding to questions around infrastructure and housing, Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, said:
Obviously this will be a staged development over a five-year period. They have confidence in Ireland, they have confidence in Dublin. We know that in relation to housing that it is top of the Government’s agenda.”
Pictured: Elizabeth Pinkham, EVP of Real Estate, Salesforce addressing the Dublin Press Conference. Photo: Julien Behal.
Part of the announcement was the unveiling of plans for a ‘Salesforce Tower’ in Dublin’s Docklands. Although it will not be as high rise as Salesforce’s skyscrapers in San Francisco or London, the new four-building campus at Spencer Place on Dublin’s North Quays will house 434,000 sq ft over five storeys, and is set for completion in 2021. The company says that once it is finished it will be one of the most environmentally sustainable office campuses in the world.
Salesforce Tower Dublin – aerial rendering.
