- Company
- Salesforce
- Role
- Chair & CEO
- Est. Net Worth
- $10 Billion
- Stage
- Elite
- Industry
- Tech & SaaS
Marc Benioff
Chair & CEO at Salesforce
About
Marc Benioff co-founded Salesforce in 1999 and pioneered the cloud-based software-as-a-service model. He has grown it into one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world and is known for his focus on stakeholder capitalism and philanthropy.
Current Company
Salesforce — Chair & CEO
The Pioneer of Software-as-a-Service
Marc Benioff co-founded Salesforce in 1999 with a vision that would fundamentally reshape the software industry: enterprise software delivered over the internet, with no hardware to install and no software to maintain. Marc Benioff had spent 13 years at Oracle under Larry Ellison before launching Salesforce, and he brought the ambition of enterprise software combined with the simplicity of consumer web services. The 'No Software' tagline became Salesforce's rallying cry and a direct challenge to the traditional enterprise software model.
Marc Benioff built Salesforce into the world's largest customer relationship management platform and one of the most valuable enterprise software companies in history. Under Marc Benioff's leadership, Salesforce pioneered the cloud computing business model that companies like Workday, ServiceNow, and hundreds of others would later follow. Marc Benioff didn't just build a successful company — he created the category that defined modern enterprise software.
Stakeholder Capitalism and Corporate Activism
Marc Benioff has been one of the most outspoken corporate leaders on social and political issues, using Salesforce's platform and his personal influence to advocate for causes including LGBTQ+ rights, homelessness, ocean conservation, and education. Marc Benioff's integrated philanthropy model — Salesforce's 1-1-1 model, which donates 1% of equity, 1% of product, and 1% of employee time to charitable causes — has been adopted by thousands of companies worldwide.
As Chair and CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff has argued that the business of business is not just business — a direct challenge to the shareholder primacy doctrine. Marc Benioff's willingness to take public stands on controversial issues, even at the risk of alienating customers or investors, has made him one of the most polarizing and influential figures in corporate America. Whether you agree with Marc Benioff's activism or not, his impact on the conversation about corporate responsibility is undeniable.