Mike de la Cruz is CEO of Directly, provider of a CX automation platform that companies such as Microsoft, Airbnb, and Samsung use to understand what their customers want, provide automated solutions, and tap community experts to solve customer problems. He served as senior vice president of customer relationship management at SAP after a five-year tenure at Siebel Systems, where he developed industry-specific CRM software. De la Cruz led a global team of 15,000 professionals at Hewlett Packard Enterprise to deliver front-office software and automation solutions for the financial services, telecommunications, consumer goods, transportation, and high-tech industries. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yale University.