# Sarah Franklin

> Sarah Franklin is the CEO of Lattice, the people-management platform headquartered in San Francisco. A Virginia Tech-trained chemical engineer and biochemist, she spent 15+ years at Salesforce, where she built Trailhead into a movement and later served as President and Chief Marketing Officer before stepping into Lattice's top job in January 2024 to rewire HR for the AI era.

- **Role:** CEO at Lattice
- **Organizations:** Lattice, PagerDuty (Board of Directors), Salesforce (former)
- **From:** Richmond, Virginia, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S., Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry (dual degree), Virginia Tech
- **Known for:** Named one of Forbes' Most Influential CMOs, Business Insider 'CMO to Watch', Adweek Brand Genius Award winner

## Career timeline

- **pre-2008** — Begins career as a chemical engineer after graduating from Virginia Tech.
- **2008** — Joins Salesforce; spends 15+ years across developer, platform and marketing leadership roles.
- **2014** — Helps launch Trailhead, Salesforce's gamified learning platform, fueling the Trailblazer community.
- **2020** — Named EVP & GM of Platform, Trailhead, and AppExchange at Salesforce.
- **2021** — Promoted to Chief Marketing Officer of Salesforce.
- **2023** — Named President & CMO of Salesforce.
- **2024-01** — Becomes CEO of Lattice; Jack Altman moves to Executive Chairman.
- **2024-12** — Appointed to PagerDuty Board of Directors.
- **2025** — Leads Lattice's AI 'refounding' of HR; keynotes Lattiverse and SXSW London.

## Achievements

- Named one of Forbes' Most Influential CMOs
- Business Insider 'CMO to Watch'
- Adweek Brand Genius Award winner
- Helped build Trailhead and the Trailblazer community at Salesforce
- Took Salesforce CMO role and later President title before exiting
- Joined PagerDuty's Board of Directors in December 2024
- Leads Lattice (~530 employees; last raised $175M Series F at a $3B valuation)

## Latest updates

- **2025-10** — Featured in The Letter Two as the architect of Lattice's AI 'refounding' of HR.
- **2025-06** — Argued in Fortune that AI will flatten knowledge differences between entry-level workers and the C-suite.
- **2024-12** — Appointed to PagerDuty Board of Directors.
- **2024-05** — Profiled by Fortune on her move from Salesforce President to Lattice CEO.

## Links

- Website: https://lattice.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahfranklin/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/swbjoyce
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LatticeCommunity/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sarah-franklin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-30