Salesforce.com Nabs SAP Marketing Exec

Salesforce is banking big on AppExchange, an online marketplace where members can share, buy and sell software that can be used in conjunction with its Apex development platform for hosted applications. With Bonvanie, Salesforce gets a seasoned marketing executive to rally the development community around those offerings.

Bonvanie had been at SAP since March 2006, and before that was chief marketing officer at Business Objects. Bonvanie also was senior VP of worldwide marketing at Veritas and a marketing VP at Oracle. Bonvanie managed the launch of Oracle 9i and co-founded Oracle's developer program, Oracle Technology Network.

"Rene will play a key role in harnessing the energy of the developer and partner communities to demonstrate the innovation that is possible with Apex as we move toward millions of on-demand developers and thousands of applications available on the AppExchange," said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in a statement.

SAP declined comment about Bonvanie's departure.