Marc Benioff

Marc Benioff is Chairman and CEO of Salesforce. A pioneer of cloud computing, Benioff founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create a new kind of enterprise software company, with a new technology model based in the cloud, a new pay-as-you-go business model and a new integrated corporate philanthropy model. Under his leadership, Salesforce has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a Fortune 500 company, the fastest-growing top five software company in the world and the largest CRM company.

Benioff is a 35-year veteran of the software industry. Prior to launching Salesforce, he spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation. He founded his first company, Liberty Software, which created video games, at the age of 15. He also worked as an assembly language programmer in Apple Computer’s Macintosh Division.

Benioff has been widely recognized for his visionary leadership and pioneering innovations. He has been named one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune; one of the 50 Most Influential People by Bloomberg; one of the top 20 Best-Performing CEOs by Harvard Business Review; Businessperson of the Year by Fortune readers; one of the Best CEOs in the World by Barron’s; Innovator of the Decade by Forbes Magazine; and he has received The Economist’s Innovation Award. Benioff is also a member of the World Economic Forum Board of Trustees.

Benioff created the 1-1-1 model of philanthropy, which leverages the resources of Salesforce to improve communities around the world: donating 1% of Salesforce’s product, 1% of its equity and 1% of employees' time to help nonprofits achieve their missions. Today, more than 3,000 companies have adopted the 1-1-1 model through the Pledge 1% movement. Benioff and his wife, Lynne, have focused their personal philanthropy on children’s health, including building UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as on public education, homelessness and other social issues.

Benioff received a B.S. in Business Administration and an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Southern California.