Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu Congratulates Trump’s New AI Advisor Sriram Krishnan: ‘I Wanted to Hire Him in 2004’

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu extended his congratulations to Sriram Krishnan, who has been appointed as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump. Vembu revealed that he had hoped to recruit Krishnan back in 2004, but his plans were unsuccessful as Krishnan was already hired by Microsoft.

Taking to X, Vembu shared: “Congratulations Sriram! Back in 2004, when Sriram was graduating from SRM University, I came across his blog — one of the early programming blogs from India at that time. I was so impressed. I wanted to recruit him, but Microsoft already had recruited him. We have been in touch on and off as he later moved to Silicon Valley and became an entrepreneur. President Trump has found a great talent for his technology team!”

Sriram Krishnan Responds

Krishnan responded to Vembu’s post with gratitude, writing: “Thank you, Sridhar. You’ve been an inspiration to Aarthi Ramamurthy (his wife) and me (and countless others) for over 20 years.”

Krishnan’s appointment was officially announced by Trump on Sunday.

 In a statement, Trump said: “Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI and help shape and coordinate AI policy across Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure.”

In his new role, Krishnan will collaborate with venture capitalist David Sacks to bolster the United States’ leadership in artificial intelligence. He will also help shape and oversee AI policies across various government departments.

Krishnan, who began his career at Microsoft, was a founding member of the Windows Azure team. Over the years, he has held key positions at Yahoo!, Meta, Twitter, and Microsoft.