Vala Afshar

Vala Afshar

Chief digital evangelist at Salesforce.

RADAR THINKER

Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025.

FAST FACT

Twice been named the top social media influencer of chief marketing officers – Forbes.

FAST FACT

Hosted the Vatican’s first ever hackathon. 

Ideas

In his new book, Boundless, Vala Afshar and co-author Henry King introduce a transformative approach for businesses to succeed in the digital age. They outline seven core principles to break down organisational silos: connection, integration, decentralisation, mobility, continuity, autonomy, and shared success. By mapping these principles to emerging technologies like blockchain and AI, the authors provide strategic insights for business leaders seeking to create resilient, adaptive organisations that can thrive in an increasingly decentralised world.

Bio

Currently chief digital evangelist at Salesforce, which he joined in 2015, Vala’s previous role was chief marketing officer (CMO) at Extreme Networks and CMO and chief customer officer (CCO) of Enterasys Networks, where he was responsible for global marketing and services. Considered a pioneer in cloud computing, social collaboration, business intelligence, and customer relationship management (CRM), Vala is regarded as one of the most influential voices in digital transformation and a top martech and social media influencer.

Content

Boundless: A New Mindset for Unlimited Business Success (with Henry King, 2023); The Pursuit of Social Business Excellence: How to Compete, Win and Expand Through Collaborations (with Brad Martin, 2012). Numerous articles across a range of publications including ‘25% of enterprises using AI will deploy AI agents by 2025’ (zdnet.com, Artificial Intelligence, December 2024); ‘Businesses must reinvent themselves in the age of agentic AI’ (zdnet.com, Artificial Business, November 2024); Welcome to Business-to-Everyone’ (Inc., November 2024); Six Tips for Tackling Digital Transformation (Inc., November 2024). DisrupTV weekly podcast

Media picks

Verdict

“’Boundless’ is a masterpiece.

Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence