Marc Benioff

Marc Benioff
Born	Marc Russell Benioff (1964-09-25) September 25, 1964 San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, philanthropist, author
Years active	1980s–present
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Salesforce; owner of Time magazine

Marc Russell Benioff (born September 25, 1964) is a prominent American entrepreneur and philanthropist in the technology sector, widely recognized as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of the software enterprise Salesforce. Since 2018, he has also held ownership of Time magazine.

Early life

Benioff was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and is of Jewish descent. His grandfather, Marvin Lewis, was a California trial lawyer and a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who played a key role in developing the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Raised in Hillsborough, Benioff completed his secondary education at Burlingame High School in 1982. He later obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Southern California in 1986, during which time he joined the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Career

During his high school years, Benioff sold his initial software program, How to Juggle, for $75. At age 15, he launched Liberty Software, producing and marketing games such as Flapper and King Arthur's Heir for the Atari 8-bit, with the royalties contributing to his college expenses.

While studying at USC, Benioff interned at Apple, where he developed assembly language code for the Macintosh. After graduation, he joined Oracle Corporation in customer service and spent 13 years advancing through roles in sales, marketing, and product development. At 23, he earned Oracle's Rookie of the Year award and became its youngest vice president.

Salesforce

In 1999, Benioff established Salesforce from a San Francisco apartment, promoting its vision with the phrase "The End of Software." This tagline highlighted Salesforce’s cloud-based CRM as an alternative to conventional CD-ROM providers like Siebel. Early in its development, he broadened Salesforce’s platform capabilities to allow developers to create custom applications.

In November 2021, Benioff was appointed co-CEO alongside Bret Taylor; however, Taylor resigned in late 2022, returning Benioff to sole CEO status. In January 2023, Benioff announced workforce reductions affecting approximately 7,000 employees during a two-hour company-wide meeting—a move he later described as a 'bad idea.' As of 2024, Salesforce continues to be one of San Francisco’s largest employers and occupies the landmark Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in the city.

Time magazine

On September 16, 2018, Marc and his wife Lynne purchased Time magazine for $190 million. The following year, Benioff launched Time Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in firms including Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Universal Hydrogen, and NCX. Significantly, two companies backed by Time Ventures—Planet Labs and IonQ—went public in 2021.

Other work

Benioff holds board memberships with the World Economic Forum and USC. He is also affiliated with both the Business Roundtable and The Business Council. As reported in February 2022 by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth was valued at approximately US$8.31 billion.

Co-written work

Benioff has co-authored four books focusing on business and technology themes. In 2004, he released Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well with Karen Southwick. Two years later, he collaborated with Carlye Adler on The Business of Changing the World: 20 Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy. Their 2009 publication, Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry, chronicles Salesforce’s evolution. In 2019, Benioff partnered with Monica Langley to publish Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change, which achieved status as a New York Times bestseller.

Recognition

In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Benioff as co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. The World Economic Forum honored him as a Young Global Leader in 2009, and he currently serves on its board of trustees. In 2012, Barron's listed him among the "Best CEOs in the World," while he also received The Economists Innovation Award that year. Fortune readers selected him as "Businessperson of the Year" in 2014, and in 2016, Fortune included him among the "World's 50 Greatest Leaders." Harvard Business Review recognized him as one of the top 10 Best-Performing CEOs in 2019, the same year he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.

Benioff was named CNN Business CEO of the Year in 2020 and received Chief Executive's CEO of the Year award in 2022. That same year, the French government bestowed upon him the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour in recognition of his philanthropic efforts. In 2024, he was honored for the tenth time by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, appearing on its Top 50 list.

Philanthropy

Marc Benioff launched the Salesforce Foundation alongside Salesforce's inception in 1999, introducing a "1-1-1" model for corporate giving: dedicating one percent each of employee time, product, and revenue to charitable initiatives.

Between 2010 and 2019, the Benioffs donated $275 million to UCSF Children's Hospital to support research and establish the UCSF Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine. Additionally, they contributed $10 million to Stanford University's Microbiome Therapies Initiative and $35 million to UCSF for prostate cancer research.

Since 2016, more than $80 million has been directed through the Benioff Ocean Science Initiative at UC Santa Barbara. In 2020, they supported 1t.org, a global campaign aiming to plant and preserve one trillion trees over ten years.

During March 2020 amid the COVID-19 crisis, Benioff secured 50 million units of personal protective equipment for hospitals and frontline workers across the United States.

The Benioffs helped establish Prince William’s Earthshot Prize and joined the World Economic Forum's Friends of Ocean Action initiative in 2021. They pledged $300 million to back reforestation efforts and entrepreneurs focused on climate solutions, alongside committing $12 million over five years to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for cleanup activities at Midway Atoll.

In 2024, Benioff took over from Warren Buffett as host of GLIDE’s annual charity lunch auction, generating $200,100 plus a $1.5 million pledge. The following year, AI entrepreneur Yi Shi won the auction. Funds raised support GLIDE’s anti-poverty programs serving San Francisco.

Social activism

Abortion

Following Texas' enactment of restrictive abortion legislation in September 2021, Benioff declared that Salesforce would assist employees wishing to relocate from Texas.

LGBTQ issues

After Indiana passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in March 2015, Benioff suspended all employee programs and travel there. This action contributed to modifications prohibiting businesses from denying services based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In February 2016, Salesforce threatened to cut investments and cancel a conference in Georgia if HB 757—which permitted businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples—became law. The governor ultimately vetoed this legislation.

Gender pay gap

Prompted by Chief Personnel Officer Cindy Robbins in April 2015, Benioff conducted a comprehensive salary review to address gender pay disparities at Salesforce. From 2015 through 2017, he allocated $8 million to rectify compensation gaps related to gender, race, and ethnicity throughout the company.

Homelessness

In October 2018, Benioff publicly criticized tech leaders for accumulating wealth while overlooking homelessness issues in San Francisco Bay Area communities. In response, he and his wife donated $30 million in 2019 to establish the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative within the Center for Vulnerable Populations, targeting homelessness, housing shortages, and related health outcomes.

By mid-2023, Benioff remarked that San Francisco "will never return to its pre-pandemic state," urging local officials to repurpose vacant office buildings into residential units and increase funding for law enforcement. Throughout that year, he actively used his X platform to advocate for “refunding the police.”

Personal life

Benioff is married to Lynne Benioff; together they have two children and live in San Francisco. He is a second cousin of David Benioff (Game of Thrones showrunner) and Zach Lloyd, CEO of Warp.

An NPR investigation in early 2024 revealed that Benioff owns more than 600 acres near Waimea on Hawaii's Big Island with acquisitions totaling $24.5 million as of February that year—raising concerns locally about housing affordability. However, by March 2024, nearly three-quarters of this land had been donated by the Benioffs, including 440 acres gifted to the Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation for affordable housing projects.

In March 2024, Benioff contributed $150 million toward expanding medical facilities in Hawaii and integrating Hawaii Pacific Health with regional hospitals—demonstrating his ongoing dedication to strengthening community healthcare infrastructure.

External links

• Official corporate biography