Google Cloud taps Kliphouse as its first North American sales head - CNBC

In an effort to close the gap on Amazon and Microsoft, Google Cloud has hired its first North American sales head, according to a story by CNBC.

Former Red Hat and Microsoft executive Kirsten Kliphouse is now in charge of Google Cloud's North American sales team. Kliphouse will also oversee how customers use G-suite and other Google services, according to a Thursday story CNBC.

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After taking over the helm at Google Cloud earlier this year, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who previously worked at Oracle for 22 years, has been making his mark on the company. During a February Goldman Sachs presentation, Kurian said his to-do list included the expansion of Google Cloud's sales distribution capabilities and channel partners to give the company a broader reach. He also said Google Cloud was providing additional training its sales team in order to better target specific industries.

In cloud market share, Google Cloud has been entrenched behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft. While it would be a tall task to leap over AWS for the top spot, given its commanding lead, Google Cloud could give Microsoft a run for its cloud money.

According to CNBC, Kurian also brought former Oracle executive Eduardo Lopez onboard as Google Cloud's first sales head in Latin America. According to his LinkedIn profile, Lopez is president of Google Cloud's Latin America division after starting at Google in June.

“Kirsten and Eduardo are inspirational business leaders who will ensure we continue to build strong relationships with users, including HSBC, UPS, Whirlpool, and many others,” Rob Enslin, president of global customer operations for Google Cloud, told CNBC in an email. “Their expertise in running multi-billion dollar sales organizations and managing large teams will be invaluable as we focus on accelerating our growth.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, Kliphouse was a senior vice president and general manager at Red Hat for close to two years. She also worked for Microsoft for almost 10 years. Prior to Google Cloud, Lopez had a 20-year career at Oracle.

In addition to bolstering its sales team, Google Cloud has been busy on the mergers and acquisition front. Last month, Google announced it was buying analytics firm for $26 billion while earlier this week Google Cloud said it was buying cloud storage company Elastifile for an undisclosed sum.

Last week, Google announced that its cybersecurity company, Chronicle, was transitioning from an Alphabet spin out into Google Cloud.