Cloud data platform Snowflake has appointed Sridhar Ramaswamy as its new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Frank Slootman.

Slootman, who steps after from the role after nearly five years, will continue to serve as Chairman of the board.

Ramaswamy first joined Snowflake as Senior Vice President of AI in May 2023, following the company's acquisition of Neeva, the world's first private AI-powered search engine, which he co-founded in 2019. Since joining Snowflake, Ramaswamy has been instrumental in leading the company's AI strategy and launching Snowflake Cortex, a fully managed service that simplifies AI for users.

"As the leading cloud data platform, Snowflake is at the epicentre of the AI revolution," said Slootman. "There is no better person than Sridhar to lead Snowflake into this next phase of growth and deliver on the opportunity ahead in AI and machine learning. He is a visionary technologist with a proven track record of running and scaling successful businesses. I have the utmost confidence in Sridhar and look forward to working with him as he assumes this new role."

Prior to founding Neeva, Ramaswamy led all of Google's Advertising products for 15 years, contributing to the growth of AdWords and Google's advertising business from $1.5 billion to over $100 billion. He has also held research positions at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, and Bell Communications Research (Bellcore). Ramaswamy was a Venture Partner at Greylock Partners from October 2018 until recently, and he sits on the board of trustees at Brown University.

"In the last 12 years, Frank and the entire team have established Snowflake as the leading cloud data platform that is providing enterprises with the secure, scalable and cost-effective data foundation and cutting-edge AI building blocks they need to build for the future," said Ramaswamy.

"My focus will be on accelerating our ability to bring innovation to our customers and partners."