“Back to that grit and grind, back to that performance, that competitive, that conviction—you want to do well. And I’m driven that way.” Andy Kofoid, President of Global Field Operations at Databricks, leads from a place of personal responsibility and deep competitive drive. He’s the kind of leader who loses sleep when performance falls short—not from fear, but from conviction. At Databricks, he is responsible for the entire customer journey, from awareness to renewal, overseeing global sales, engineering, marketing, success, and more. But beneath the vast scope of the role is a mindset honed over decades: build relationships in person, earn trust deliberately, and drive performance with rigor.
Born in the United States, Kofoid grew up in a family of five where dinner table conversations centered around Chicago sports and the practicalities of saving for college. That upbringing shaped his work ethic early on, he started working at 13 and laid the foundation for a disciplined and relentless approach to business. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, followed by an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Before joining Databricks, Kofoid held senior leadership positions at Salesforce, including President of North American Sales and EVP/COO of the B2C and Marketing Cloud units. He also led global go-to-market functions at ExactTarget during its IPO and $2.6 billion acquisition by Salesforce, and earlier held leadership roles at Dassault Systèmes, Oracle, and IBM.
That early drive, however, came with a realization: performance alone doesn’t define worth. Kofoid has spent the past few years reassessing the narratives he internalized early in his career. “You give me a task, and I will dig a ditch until you tell me to stop. There’s a real power in that in a career—but there’s also a downside.” Today, he’s focused not just on delivering numbers, but on evolving as a more grounded, value-driven leader, one who still believes the best results come from showing up, shaking hands, and doing the hard work, together.