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Vertex has appointed DataRobot Chief Executive Officer Debanjan Saha to its Board of Directors, effective 7 October.
The appointment expands Vertex's board from nine to 10 members, eight of whom are independent.
Saha has led DataRobot since September 2022. Previously, he held senior roles at Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, where he oversaw data analytics and database services, respectively, after earlier executive and technical leadership positions at IBM.
His appointment comes as companies embed more artificial intelligence into core business systems and as tax and compliance teams face pressure to modernise long-established processes.
Vertex, which focuses on indirect tax and compliance software and services, said Saha brings more than two decades of experience in AI, data and cloud businesses in the US and international markets. The company has been repositioning itself around what it describes as an AI-first strategy.
Christopher Young, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vertex, said Saha's background spans several major shifts in enterprise technology.
"Debanjan's experience at the forefront of several major technological transitions, including cloud and now AI, brings the unique perspective that we need to meet the moment," Young said. "As companies increasingly embed AI into the systems and processes that run their business, that insight will be invaluable to our board and leadership team as we continue building an AI-first company and helping customers transform how indirect tax and compliance work gets done."
The appointment adds a technology executive with recent AI operating experience at a time when software suppliers across finance, tax and compliance are seeking to show how automation and generative AI can be applied to routine business functions.
Saha also serves on the board of Sorenson Communications and sits on its audit committee. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery.
He holds Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in computer science from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
AI and tax
Indirect tax has become a growing focus for technology vendors as multinationals contend with expanding digital reporting requirements, electronic invoicing rules and demands for faster audit responses across multiple jurisdictions.
For companies operating internationally, these processes can include transaction tax determination, invoicing, reporting, filing and dispute management. As a result, tax compliance has become one of several back-office functions where software groups are applying AI to improve workflow efficiency and identify data patterns across large volumes of transactions.
Saha linked that opportunity to Vertex's market position.
"Indirect tax touches nearly every enterprise transaction, making it a powerful area to apply AI and unlock new levels of insight, automation, and strategic value," Saha said. "Vertex has the customer trust, the domain depth, and the global footprint to lead this shift. I've spent my career scaling AI organizations through exactly this kind of inflection point, and I'm excited to help the team turn that advantage into category leadership."
Vertex says it is used by more than 60% of the Fortune 500 and has operations in North America, South America and Europe.