Chief of Staff  ·  Sales Operations  ·  Revenue Strategy  ·  AI Platform GTM
$10MStrategic TCV
139%Career Attainment
80×AI Platform ROI
9×Quota Club
Top 1%Accelerate Leadership

Where Strategy
Meets
Execution.

12 years at Salesforce — not as an observer, but as the operator inside the revenue engine. Building the infrastructure, owning the pipeline discipline, aligning cross-functional teams, and co-designing the GTM plays that move markets. Ready to bring that to Cohere's CRO.
Sales Operations & RevOps CRM Architecture Pipeline Governance Cross-Functional GTM AI Platform Strategy
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Chris Roberts
$10M Strategic TCV (CAD) · 12-Year Career Average
139% Career Attainment Average · FY15–FY23
80× AI Platform ROI · Home Depot Canada
9× Quota Achievers Club · Consecutive Years
Top 1% Accelerate Leadership · Salesforce Global
The Positioning
The Chief of Staff to a CRO is not an administrator — it is an operating partner. Someone who can translate strategy into execution, convert data into decisions, and hold the revenue engine together across functions. My 12 years at Salesforce — building RevOps infrastructure from scratch, co-designing GTM plays with product marketing, and partnering with sales leadership to evaluate and deploy AI capabilities before the rest of the field saw them — is precisely that role, lived out at scale inside one of the world's most operationally sophisticated revenue organizations. That is what I am bringing to Cohere.
Core Expertise

Built for the Chief of Staff Mandate

Sales Operations & RevOps
Custom CRM dashboards · Pipeline alert systems · Slack-integrated reporting · Forecast governance · Sales process architecture · Revenue analytics · CRM optimization
AI Platform & GTM Strategy
AI component evaluation · Prompt strategy · Sales enablement design · ABM GTM architecture · Field programme deployment · Cohere / Salesforce AI · GTM readiness frameworks
Performance Analytics
KPI design & governance · Sales conversion analytics · Pipeline health monitoring · Forecast modelling · Revenue attainment tracking · Data-driven recommendations · Board-level reporting
Cross-Functional Alignment
Marketing + sales cohesion · Product + GTM integration · Customer success handoffs · Programme governance · Change management at scale · Stakeholder alignment · Operating model design
Executive Stakeholder Management
C-Suite engagement (CRO · CMO · CDO · CTO) · Board-level communication · Executive presentation design · Strategic liaison · Programme escalation · Cross-org influence without authority
Team Leadership & Enablement
Servant leadership · Coaching & mentorship · Accountability frameworks · High-performance culture · Sales enablement tool deployment · Evidence-based decision making · Team building at scale
Professional Experience

12 Years Inside the Revenue Engine

FY26 – FY27
Director, Enterprise Sales
Salesforce Canada
US Retail & Consumer Goods · Marketing Cloud · Commerce Cloud · Data Cloud
  • Built and led a 10-person enterprise AE team across six North American offices (Toronto, New York, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco), owning the full digital portfolio for enterprise and strategic Retail & Consumer Goods accounts.
  • Key accounts: Walmart, MARS, L'Oréal, Nike, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Walgreens, Kroger — team closed 30%+ of total vertical revenue for the enterprise and strategic field organisation.
  • Built custom Salesforce dashboards, pipeline alert systems, and Slack-integrated reporting infrastructure to give a geographically distributed team real-time visibility into coverage gaps, forecast health, and deal progression — without a dedicated RevOps resource.
  • Active collaborator with Sales Strategy, Sales Enablement, and Sales Programs teams — co-determining which AI capabilities, prompts, and field practices were ready for broader deployment; at Salesforce, the field sales team is the proving ground for every product and process the company takes to market.
FY23 – FY25
Strategic Enterprise Account Executive
Salesforce Canada
Loblaw · Walmart Canada · Home Depot Canada · PC Financial / PC Bank · Beer Store · Roots Canada
  • Loblaw Companies: Architected Marketing Cloud strategy across 20+ lines of business — PC Optimum, PC Financial, Shoppers Drug Mart, Joe Fresh — reaching 50%+ of the Canadian population. +33% AOV across programmes.
  • Home Depot Canada: Won 12-month competitive RFP for AI Personalisation + Intelligence platform. Post-implementation: 80× ROI, 7-month payback, $115.9M projected annual impact.
  • Walmart Canada: Led Marketing Cloud deployment and championed first enterprise WhatsApp deployment in Canada after 24-month competitive evaluation. Formal member of the Walmart Global team at Bentonville HQ. Results: 90%+ push notification lift, +40% CTR, +11% AOV.
  • Beer Store (FY24): Net-new logo, 7-week displacement of MailChimp and HubSpot — full digital portfolio deployment including website, app, and personalised email programme.
  • Embedded collaborator with Sales Strategy and Sales Programs: contributed to evaluating and refining AI-assisted selling tools and prompt frameworks before deployment across the broader Salesforce field organisation.
FY20 – FY22
Commercial & Enterprise Account Executive
Salesforce Canada
Mid-market and enterprise accounts · Healthcare & Life Sciences · Marketing Cloud · Pardot
  • Roots Canada: Multi-cloud deployment (Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, AI) — 26.2% of total sales driven through personalised recommendations, 7× ROI, 6× SEO efficiency improvement.
  • Harnois Énergies: Marketing Cloud deployment — 40% customer purchase rate post-promo journey, 66% of conversions captured within the first 30 days.
  • Featured in Salesforce's global Digital AE onboarding materials and the Salesforce corporate book as a model for enterprise sales leadership.
FY16 – FY19
SMB Account Executive
Salesforce Canada
Healthcare & Life Sciences · Marketing Automation · Pardot (Account Engagement)
  • #1 Pardot AE globally, FY19 — authored ABM go-to-market strategy for HLS across the entire Salesforce field organisation.
  • ABM GTM Co-Architect — Dreamforce Speaker: Sole salesperson selected to co-build Salesforce's first global ABM GTM model alongside a Senior Director of Product Marketing. Co-presented at Dreamforce and Connections 2019. The playbook was deployed to the entire global sales organisation.
  • League (HLS): Full platform deployment displacing HubSpot — 10× new customer signings, 63% monthly active users, employer NPS 7× the health insurance industry average.
Proof Points

What Operating at This Level Produces

Retail · AI Platform
Home Depot Canada
Won a 12-month competitive RFP for AI Personalisation + Intelligence. Built the business case, navigated the evaluation, and drove post-implementation accountability.
80× ROI · $115.9M Projected Impact
Retail · CDP + Messaging
Walmart Canada
Led the first enterprise WhatsApp deployment in Canada after a 24-month competitive evaluation. Formal member of the Walmart Global team at Bentonville HQ.
90%+ Push Lift · +40% CTR · +11% AOV
Retail · Multi-Cloud
Loblaw Companies
Architected Marketing Cloud strategy across 20+ lines of business — PC Optimum, PC Financial, Shoppers Drug Mart, Joe Fresh — reaching half the Canadian population.
+33% AOV · 50%+ of Canadians Reached
Retail · AI Commerce
Roots Canada
Multi-cloud deployment with AI-powered personalised recommendations driving a material share of total e-commerce revenue from day one.
26.2% of Sales · 7× ROI · 6× SEO Lift
GTM Architecture
Salesforce Global ABM GTM
Co-designed Salesforce's first global ABM go-to-market for Healthcare & Life Sciences alongside a Senior Director of Product Marketing. Presented at Dreamforce and Connections 2019.
Deployed to the Entire Global Sales Org
AI Evaluation · Field Ops
Salesforce AI Deployment
Embedded collaborator with Sales Strategy and Sales Programs — co-determining which AI capabilities, prompts, and field practices were ready for broader deployment across the global org.
AI Proving Ground · Field-to-Product Feedback Loop
Leadership Philosophy

How I Operate

01
Strategy is Only Useful When It Executes
I have been in rooms where strategy died in the slide deck. My job — as a revenue leader and as a potential Chief of Staff — is to build the operating infrastructure that closes the gap between direction and delivery. That means dashboards, cadences, accountability frameworks, and cross-functional alignment that make the strategy real.
02
Data Is the Conversation Starter, Not the Answer
I built custom RevOps infrastructure at Salesforce not because I had a team — I did not — but because I needed to make decisions at pace. Pipeline health, forecast signals, coverage gaps: real-time visibility changes how a team behaves. Performance analytics are not reporting — they are the operating system for a revenue organisation.
03
Cross-Functional Credibility Is Earned, Not Granted
A Chief of Staff operates at the intersection of every function. I co-built GTM with product marketing, co-evaluated AI deployment with sales programs, and managed strategic accounts alongside finance, legal, and customer success. The ability to operate across those boundaries — with credibility — is the core of this role.
04
AI Fluency Is Not a Bonus. It Is the Baseline.
12 years at Salesforce placed me inside the evolution of enterprise AI in real time — selling it, beta-testing it, evaluating prompt frameworks before field deployment, and helping large organizations move from AI ambition to AI adoption. Cohere is building the infrastructure layer for enterprise AI. Understanding that layer is not optional for this role.
Why Chief of Staff · Why Cohere

The Fit Is Specific.

The Chief of Staff to the CRO is the person who makes the CRO more effective. I have spent 12 years building exactly that skillset — not as a support function, but as a commercial operator who understands pipeline, product, GTM, and people. Cohere sits at a genuinely important inflection point in enterprise AI adoption. The revenue motion matters enormously. I want to be part of building it.
Operational Infrastructure
I build the dashboards, alerts, and reporting systems that keep distributed revenue teams aligned without requiring a dedicated RevOps headcount.
AI Platform Credibility
I have sold, tested, and co-deployed AI capabilities inside Salesforce's live revenue environment — giving me a practitioner's understanding of enterprise AI GTM.
Executive Partnership
I have operated at the CRO, CMO, CDO, and CTO level across complex enterprise accounts and internal leadership structures. I know how to move at that altitude.
Credentials & Recognition
Career Performance
139% career attainment average (FY15–FY23) · 9× Quota Achievers Club (consecutive) · 3× Peak Performers Club (FY17, FY19, FY23)
Leadership & Recognition
Accelerate Leadership Programme — Top 1% Globally · #1 Global Pardot AE · L1A Executive Transfer Visa — United States
Community & Education
Co-Founder & Executive Sponsor, BOLDforce Canada — 500+ members · Board Secretary, BLK Owned · University of Guelph, BComm (Honours)
Ready to
Partner with Cohere.

Applying for the Chief of Staff to the CRO role at Cohere. 12 years of revenue operations, AI platform GTM, and executive partnership — ready to put it to work inside one of the most important AI companies in the world.

Start a Conversation
chris.h.roberts@outlook.com 905-580-9430 linkedin.com/in/chrishroberts