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Marc Benioff

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Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964)[2] is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist. Benioff is best known as the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the software company Salesforce, as well as being the owner of Time magazine since 2018.[3][4]

Marc Benioff
Benioff in 2021
Born
Marc Russell Benioff

(1964-09-25) September 25, 1964 (age 60)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Southern California (BS)
Known forFounder, chairman and CEO, Salesforce
Co-chair and owner, Time[1]
SpouseLynne Krilich
Children2

Early life and education

Marc Russell Benioff was born on September 25, 1964, in the San Francisco Bay Area.[5] He is the grandson of Marvin Lewis, a California trial attorney and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who championed the creation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.[6][7] Benioff grew up in Hillsborough[8] and graduated from Burlingame High School in 1982.[9] Benioff received a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, in 1986.[9][10]

Career

While in high school, Benioff sold his first application, How to Juggle, for $75.[9] In 1979, when he was 15, Benioff founded Liberty Software, creating and selling games such as Flapper and King Arthur's Heir for the Atari 8-bit.[9][11][12] Royalties from these games helped Benioff pay for college.[9][13]

While at USC, Benioff had an internship as a programmer at Apple where he wrote assembly code for the Macintosh.[14][15] He joined Oracle Corporation in a customer-service role after graduating.[9] Benioff worked at Oracle for 13 years in a variety of sales, marketing, and product development roles.[3] At 23, he was named Oracle's Rookie of the Year, and later became the youngest vice president in the company's history.[3]

Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999,[16] while working from a San Francisco apartment. He defined its mission in a marketing statement as "The End of Software."[17] This was a slogan he frequently used to preach about software on the Web; it was used too as a guerilla marketing tactic against the dominant CD-ROM-based customer relationship management (CRM) software provider at the time, Siebel.[18] Benioff extended Salesforce's offerings in the early 2000s with the idea of a platform that allowed developers to create applications.[19] As of 2024, Salesforce is one of the biggest employers in San Francisco[20] and the anchor tenant of Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco.[21]

Benioff also serves on the World Economic Forum's board of trustees and USC board of trustees.[3][5] On September 16, 2018, Marc and his wife Lynne bought Time for $190 million.[4] In 2019, Benioff started Time Ventures, a venture capital fund that has invested in multiple companies, including Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Universal Hydrogen and NCX.[22][23][24][25][26] In 2021, two companies Time Venture backed, Planet Labs and IonQ, went public.[27][28][29] Benioff is a member of the Business Roundtable, an advocacy group of CEOs, and the Business Council.[30][31] In November 2021, Benioff became co-CEO of Salesforce when Bret Taylor's promotion to co-CEO was announced.[32] One year later, Bret Taylor stepped down as Salesforce co-CEO, leaving Marc Benioff as sole CEO again.[33] As of February 2022, Benioff had an estimated net worth of US$8.31 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[34]

In January 2023 Benioff announced the mass dismissal of approximately 7,000 Salesforce employees via a two-hour all-hands meeting over a call, a course of action he later admitted had been a 'bad idea'.[35]

Co-written work

Benioff has co-written four books about business and technology. In 2004, he co-wrote Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well with Karen Southwick.[36] In 2006, he co-wrote The Business of Changing the World: 20 Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy with Carlye Adler.[36] In 2009, he co-wrote Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry, also with Carlye Adler.[37] In 2019, he again co-wrote Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change, with Monica Langley.[36] The book became a New York Times bestseller.[38]

Recognition

 
Benioff during the WEF 2013

In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Benioff co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee.[39] In 2009, Benioff was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and is a member of its board of trustees.[40][41] In 2012, he was named one of the "Best CEOs in the World" by Barron's[42] and received The Economist's Innovation Award.[43] In 2014, Fortune readers voted him "Businessperson of the Year."[44] In 2016, Fortune named him one of the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders."[45] In 2019, he was recognized as one of the 10 Best-Performing CEOs by Harvard Business Review[46] and as the CNN Business CEO of 2020.[47]

Philanthropy

 
Marc Benioff in 2009

In addition to founding Salesforce in 1999, Benioff also founded the Salesforce Foundation. The foundation uses a "1-1-1" approach to corporate philanthropy, where the company gives one percent of employee time as volunteer hours, one percent of its product and one percent of its revenue to charitable causes.[48][49][50]

From 2010 to 2019, the Benioffs donated a total of $275 million to UCSF Children’s Hospital, to fund research, and to create the UCSF Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine.[51] They have also donated $10 million to Stanford University for the Microbiome Therapies Initiative, and $35 million to the University of California, San Francisco, to establish a prostate cancer research initiative.[52]

Since 2016, Benioff has donated over $80 million as part of the Benioff Ocean Science Initiative at the University of California at Santa Barbara.[53][54]

In January 2020, Benioff announced that he and his wife would provide financial backing for 1t.org to support a global initiative to plant and conserve 1 trillion trees over the next decade.[55]

Benioff procured 50 million pieces of personal protective equipment for hospitals and COVID-19 first responders in the United States in March 2020.[56]

The Benioffs were founding partners of Prince William's Earthshot Prize.[57]In 2021, they were founding members of the World Economic Forum's Friends of Ocean Action initiative, and later pledged $300 million donation to plant trees and fund ecologically focused entrepreneurs.[58][59]

Social activism

Abortion

In September 2021, Benioff announced that Salesforce would relocate any Texas employees who wanted to move after an abortion law went into effect.[60][61]

LGBTQ issues

In March 2015, Benioff announced Salesforce would cancel all employee programs and travel in Indiana after the passing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.[62] This led to a revised version of the bill being signed into law that prohibited businesses from denying services to someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity.[63]

In February 2016, Benioff announced that Salesforce would reduce investments in Georgia and cancel a conference if HB 757, a bill that would allow businesses to decline services to same-sex couples, was passed.[64] The governor vetoed the bill.[65]

Gender pay gap

In April 2015, after the issue was raised by Salesforce chief personnel officer Cindy Robbins, Benioff announced that he would review salaries at Salesforce to ensure men and women were paid equally.[66] He subsequently dedicated $8 million between 2015 and 2017 to “correct compensation differences by gender, race, and ethnicity across the company”.[67]

Homelessness

In an October 2018 interview with The Guardian, Benioff criticized other technology industry executives for "hoarding" their money and refusing to help the homeless in the San Francisco Bay Area.[68]

In 2019, the Benioffs donated $30 million to the Center for Vulnerable Populations for the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative to study the impacts of homelessness, housing, and health.[69]

In July 2023, Benioff stated[21] that San Francisco "will never go back to the way it was before the pandemic" and recommended that city leadership convert old office space into housing and hire more police. He used his platform on X to call for “refunding the police” numerous times in 2023.[70]

Personal life

Benioff is married to Lynne Benioff and has two children. The family lives in San Francisco, California.[3][9] He is a second cousin of showrunner and television writer David Benioff, known for Game of Thrones.[71]

A 2024 investigation by NPR journalist Dara Kerr found that Benioff has purchased more than 600 acres of land in Hawaii, mostly near the town of Waimea on Big Island. Benioff's purchases, which totaled $24.5 million as of February 2024, have sparked concern among Waimea locals regarding rising housing prices.[72]

According to a Benioff spokesperson, the Benioffs have given away nearly 75 percent of the land they’ve purchased in Hawaii as of March 2024, including a total of 440 acres to the non-profit Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation.[73]In March, Benioff donated $150 million to a group of Hawaii medical organizations, to build additional facilities and to link the Hawaii Pacific Health system with other local hospitals.[74][75][76]

References

  1. ^ "The Enduring Hope of Jane Goodall". Time. September 30, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  2. ^ "Benioff, Marc R. 1964- [WorldCat Identities]".
  3. ^ a b c d e "Marc Benioff". Forbes. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
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  5. ^ a b Rogers, Matt Weinberger, Taylor Nicole. "The rise of Marc Benioff, the bombastic owner of Time Magazine who just became Salesforce's sole CEO, has an $8 billion fortune, and owns a 5-acre compound in Hawaii". Business Insider. Retrieved March 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "Marc Benioff, Salesforce, and the monorail-loving SF supervisor who inspired them". October 15, 2019.
  7. ^ "Marvin e. Lewis, 84, A Pioneering Lawyer". The New York Times. October 7, 1991.
  8. ^ "Russell Benioff, owner of apparel chain, dies". January 17, 2012.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Newton, Casey (July 24, 2011). "Marc Benioff, CEO, makes philanthropy a priority". SFGate.
  10. ^ Lynley, Matt. "Frat Boys Are Taking Over The Tech World". Business Insider. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  11. ^ Duberman, David (January 1984). "ROM Fun: Survey of recent cartridge games". Antic. p. 62. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
  12. ^ Bort, Julie. "The Fabulous Life Of Tech Billionaire Marc Benioff". Business Insider. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  13. ^ Benioff, Marc; Adler, Carlyle (2009). Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry. John Wiley & Sons. pp. xviii–xx. ISBN 978-0-470-53592-9.
  14. ^ Farber, Dan (September 10, 2013). "Marc Benioff explains Steve Jobs' spirituality and chides Apple". CNET.
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  20. ^ www.bizjournals.com https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/subscriber-only/2024/01/05/largest-employers-in-san-francisco.html. Retrieved September 5, 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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  22. ^ Hiller, Jennifer (December 2021). "WSJ News Exclusive | Nuclear-Fusion Startup Lands $1.8 Billion as Investors Chase Star Power". Wall Street Journal.
  23. ^ "Commonwealth Fusion, Backed by Gates, Soros, Benioff, Raises $1.8B". December 2021.
  24. ^ "NCX raises $50M for natural capital markets". March 2, 2022.
  25. ^ "Marc Benioff backs start-up that uses satellites to count trees and pays people not to cut them down". CNBC. March 2, 2022.
  26. ^ "Universal Hydrogen Raises $62 Million in Series B". October 14, 2021.
  27. ^ "Satellite imagery company Planet Labs is going public, backed by Google, BlackRock and Marc Benioff". CNBC. July 7, 2021.
  28. ^ Maurer, Mark (November 29, 2021). "Planet Labs Looks to Expand Software Offerings, Win New Customers with IPO Funds". Wall Street Journal.
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  65. ^ Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "BREAKING: Nathan Deal vetoes Georgia's 'religious liberty' bill" By Greg Bluestein April 9, 2016
  66. ^ The Huffington Post: "Salesforce CEO Takes Radical Step To Pay Men And Women Equally" By Emily Peck April 23, 2015
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  69. ^ "UCSF Launches New Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative with $30M Gift". UCSF Launches New Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative with $30M Gift | UC San Francisco. May 2019.
  70. ^ Benioff, Marc. X https://twitter.com/Benioff/status/1718761249930989941. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  71. ^ Bort, Julie (April 12, 2015). "How these famous Benioffs are related". Business Insider. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  72. ^ Kerr, Dara (February 28, 2024). "A tech billionaire is quietly buying up land in Hawaii. No one knows why". National Public Radio. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  73. ^ "Benioffs donate additional 158 acres for affordable housing project in Waimea | Big Island Now". | Benioffs donate additional 158 acres for affordable housing project in Waimea. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  74. ^ "Marc Benioff gives $150 million to Hawaii hospitals and says he donated most of the land he bought there". Quartz. March 5, 2024. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  75. ^ none (November 20, 2024). "Benioff donation to help fund new Hawaii island health center". The Garden Island. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  76. ^ Wu, Nina (March 5, 2024). "Marc and Lynne Benioff donate $150M to 2 Hawaii hospitals". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Retrieved March 5, 2024.

Further reading

 
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