Executive Team
The salesforce.com executive management team is made up of seasoned individuals who now seek to define salesforce.com as a world-class company delivering enterprise software as an online service.
The executive management team at salesforce.com is comprised of:
- Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO
- Jim Steele, President, Worldwide Sales & Distribution
- Steve Cakebread, Chief Financial Officer
- Parker Harris, EVP, Technology
- Kenneth I. Juster, EVP, Law, Policy, and Corporate Strategy
- George Hu, Chief Marketing Officer
- Frank van Veenendaal, President, Worldwide Corporate Sales and Services
Marc Benioff
Chairman & CEO
Marc Benioff is chairman and
CEO of salesforce.com. He founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand
information management service that would replace traditional enterprise software technology.
Benioff is regarded as the leader of what he has termed "The End of Software," the now-proven
belief that multitenant, on-demand applications democratize information by delivering immediate
benefits at reduced risks and costs.
Under Benioff's direction, salesforce.com has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a publicly traded company that is the market and technology leader in on-demand business services. For its revolutionary approach, salesforce.com has been lauded as one of BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, named No. 7 on The Wired 40, and selected as a Top Ten Disrupter by Forbes. The product has won the Software & Information Industry Association Codie Award for Best CRM for the past five years. Benioff has been widely recognized for pioneering innovation and fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship with honors such as the SDForum Visionary Award, Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business, and being ranked No. 7 on the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT survey by eWEEK. He was appointed by President George W. Bush as the co-chairman of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and served from 2003-2005, overseeing the publishing of critical reports on health care information technology, cybersecurity, and computational sciences.
Throughout his career, Benioff has also been committed to using information technology to produce positive social change. In 2000 he launched the Salesforce.com Foundation—now a multimillion-dollar global organization—establishing the “one-percent model,” whereby the company contributes one percent of profits, one percent of equity, and one percent of employee hours back to the communities it serves. In 2006, Benioff authored The Business of Changing the World, in which 20 great leaders reveal how businesses can go beyond writing a check and leverage the full scope of their resources to make a difference. Compassionate Capitalism, also authored by Benioff, is the first-ever best-practices guide for corporate philanthropy that illustrates the success of the integrated model. Acknowledging his commitment to building partnerships between business and society to improve the state of the world, the members of the World Economic Forum named Benioff as one of its a Young Global Leaders, and in 2007 the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy presented Benioff with the coveted Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award.
Prior to launching salesforce.com, Benioff, a more than 25-year veteran of the software industry, spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation from 1986-1999. In 1984, he worked as an assembly language programmer in Apple Computer’s Macintosh Division. He founded entertainment software company Liberty Software in 1979 when he was 15 years old. Benioff received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California in 1986.
Some of the top awards Marc Benioff has received include:
- eWEEK Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, 2007 (No. 7)
- Business 2.0 50 People Who Matter Now, 2006 (No. 11)
- NEA Outstanding Entrepreneur, 2006
- DEMO World-Class Innovator Award, 2005
- World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow, 2005
- SDForum Visionary Award, 2004
- USC Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year, 2004
- Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Northern California, 2003
-
BusinessWeek ebiz 25, 2003
-
Fortune Top 10 Entrepreneurs to Watch, 2003
- "True Friend of the User Community"—International Oracle Users Group, 1995
Some of the top awards that salesforce.com has received, include:
- Software & Information Industry Association Codie Award for Best CRM, five years in a row,
2002-2007
- The
Wired 40, three years in a row: 2005-2007 (No. 7 in 2007)
- BusinessWeek Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, 2006 (No. 79)
- CRM Magazine Market Leader, enterprise CRM, midsize CRM, and sales force automation categories, 2006
- Forbes Top Ten Disrupters of 2006
- Harvard Business School Association of Northern California, Entrepreneurial Company of the Year, 2005
-
InfoWorld Technology of the Year, 2003-2005
-
PC Magazine Editors’ Choice, 2002-2004
- Gartner CRM Excellence Awards, 2003
-
Fortune Cool Company, 2001
Some of the acknowledgements the Saleforce.com Foundation has received on behalf of its work in the community include:
- Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award,
awarded to Marc Benioff, 2007
- Business Ethics magazine: 100 Best Corporate Citizens, 2006 (No. 7)
- KLD Social Index; salesforce.com added to the Domini Social Index 400, 2005
- U.S. Department of Commerce Corporate Stewardship Award, 2003
- Points of Light Foundation Award for Excellence in Corporate Community Service, 2003
Jim Steele
President, Worldwide Sales & Distribution
As president of salesforce.com,
Jim Steele oversees global sales. He is charged with advancing the company's winning on-demand
strategy, customer success, and growing the customer base.
Steele joined salesforce.com in October 2002 from Ariba Corporation, where he served as
executive vice president of worldwide sales.
Steele brings over 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience to his
new role at salesforce.com. Previously, he served in a variety of executive roles at International
Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. Most recently, Steele was vice president of the North America
western area, where he was responsible for over $9 billion in hardware, software, and services
sales of a 10,000 employee organization. His prior positions at IBM include nearly four years in
Tokyo as vice president of systems sales as well as general manager of telecommunications in Asia
Pacific where he led IBM to record revenue and market share growth.
Steele holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.
Steve Cakebread
Chief Financial Officer
Steve Cakebread joined
salesforce.com as the company's chief financial officer with over 25 years experience in the
financial industry. As CFO, Cakebread reports directly to Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff and is
responsible for overseeing saleforce.com's global financial initiatives as it moves to the next
level of delivering software as a service.
Cakebread came to salesforce.com from Autodesk, where he served as senior vice president and
chief financial officer and was responsible for all of the company's accounting and corporate
finance functions. He also ran the company's strategic Information Technology Systems and Business
Development. Prior to joining Autodesk, Cakebread was vice president of finance for Silicon
Graphics World Trade, for which he managed accounting and finance, information systems, sales, and
service administration. He also held many key positions at Hewlett Packard, where he gained
experience in global finance for high technology.
Cakebread holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Berkeley and a
Master of Business Administration from Indiana University.
Parker Harris
EVP, Technology
Parker Harris founded
salesforce.com along with Marc Benioff, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez in the spring of 1999.
As Executive Vice President, Harris oversees the development of all software for salesforce.com.
Prior to founding salesforce.com, Harris developed web application and salesforce automation
expertise at Left Coast Software, a private consulting company he co-founded, as well as at
Metropolis software, an early pioneer in field sales force automation subsequently acquired by
Clarify.
Harris has over twelve years of software engineering and management experience. He graduated
from Middlebury College with a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature.
Kenneth I. Juster
EVP, Law, Policy, and Corporate Strategy
Ken Juster joined
salesforce.com in January 2005 as executive vice president of law, policy, and corporate strategy.
His duties include overseeing legal matters, corporate development, global public policy and
strategy, human resources, risk management, internal audit, and worldwide real estate and
facilities. He is a member of the Company's executive committee and reports directly to
salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.
Juster has over 27 years of experience in government, law, business, and international affairs. He currently serves on the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He previously served as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce from 2001-2005, in charge of the Bureau of Industry and Security. In that capacity, Juster oversaw issues at the intersection of business and national security, including strategic trade controls, imports and foreign investments that affect U.S. security, enforcement of antiboycott laws, and industry compliance with international arms control agreements. He also founded and served as the U.S. Chair of the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group, and was one of the key architects of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership initiative between the United States and India. In addition, he was responsible for negotiating and signing the End-Use Visit Understanding between the United States and China that facilitated increased exports of U.S. high technology to China. Upon completion of his term at the Commerce Department, Juster received the Secretary of Commerce's William C. Redfield Award and Medal, the Commerce Department's highest honor.
Juster also served as the Counselor (Acting) of the U.S. Department of State from 1992-1993, and as the Deputy and Senior Adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger from 1989-1992. He was one of the key U.S. government officials involved in establishing and managing U.S. assistance programs to Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also was actively involved in policy matters relating to China, Japan, Latin America, Israel, and the Persian Gulf. Upon completion of his tenure at the State Department, Juster received the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award and Medal, the State Department's highest honor.
From 1981-1989 and 1993-2001, Juster practiced law at the firm of Arnold & Porter, where he became a senior partner and his work involved international arbitration and litigation, corporate counseling, regulatory matters, and international trade and transactions. Juster also served as a law clerk in 1980-1981 to Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and worked at the National Security Council in 1978.
Among the awards that Juster has received are the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit in 2006 from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany (for contributions to U.S.-German relations); the Vasco Núñez de Balboa en el Grado de Gran Cruz Decoration and Medal in 2004 from the President of Panama (for contributions to U.S.-Panama relations); the 2004 Blackwill Award from the U.S.-India Business Council (for contributions to U.S.-India relations); and the 2002 and 2004 Friendship Awards from the U.S.-Panama Business Council (for contributions to U.S.-Panama relations). Juster also has published extensively on international economic and legal issues, including Making Economic Policy: An Assessment of the National Economic Council (Brookings Institution, 1997) and "The Myth of Iraqgate" in Foreign Policy magazine (Spring 1994).
Juster holds a law degree from the Harvard Law School, a Master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in government (Phi Beta Kappa) from Harvard College. He is a graduate of Scarsdale High School, where he was named in 2007 as one of its Distinguished Alumni. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was a Visiting Fellow in 1993. He is a former AFS Exchange Student to Thailand (1973).
George Hu
Chief Marketing Officer
As chief marketing officer at salesforce.com, Hu leads the global marketing organization, which
includes corporate marketing, product marketing, and product management. He is responsible for the
company's messaging and applications product strategy, and is a member of the company's executive
committee reporting directly to salesforce.com Chairman & CEO Marc Benioff.
Hu joined salesforce.com in 2002 and has served in a variety of management roles including
vice president of product marketing and senior vice president of applications. In these capacities
he has led the broadening of the company's product portfolio into customer service and support and
partner relationship management, launched breakthrough new products including Salesforce Unlimited
Edition, and driven the creation of innovative new concepts such as Successforce.com and
Successforce Ideas.
Prior to joining salesforce.com, Hu held product management and strategic consulting roles at
North Point Communications and Boston Consulting Group. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in
economics from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate
School of Business.
Frank van Veenendaal
President, Worldwide Corporate Sales and Services
As President of Worldwide Corporate Sales and Services at salesforce.com, van Veenendaal leads
the global Corporate Sales organization, which includes sales, services and alliances. He is
responsible for growing the company's Small and Medium Enterprise business and is a member of the
company's executive committee reporting directly to salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.
van Veenendaal joined salesforce.com in August of 2001 and has served in a variety of
executive management roles including Senior Vice President of Sales and Services and Executive Vice
President of Corporate Sales and Services. In these capacities he has been instrumental in the
growth and evolution of the sales organization through the creation of innovative new compensation
plans, pipeline development, sales segmentation and growth strategies.
van Veenendaal brings over 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience
to his roles at salesforce.com. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Actuate
Corporation, a enterprise reporting and performance management software company. Prior to joining
Actuate, he spent six years with Interleaf where he served in various roles including that of
Regional Director of Sales. In the early stages of his career, van Veenendaal held various sales
and sales management positions for high tech companies such as Integrated Solutions, Pyramid and
Harris Corporation.
van Veenendaal holds Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.




