Board of directors
The Salesforce board of directors is an exceptional group of individuals who have helped, advised, and established many of the premier companies of Silicon Valley.
The current board of directors at Salesforce is comprised of:
- Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO
- Keith Block, Vice Chairman, President and COO
- Craig Conway, Former CEO, PeopleSoft
- Alan Hassenfeld, Director, Hasbro, Inc.
- Neelie Kroes, Former Vice President of the European Commission
- Colin Powell, General, Former U.S. Secretary of State, Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Sanford Robertson, Principal, Francisco Partners
- John V. Roos, Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
- Bernard J. Tyson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
- Robin L. Washington, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Gilead Sciences Inc.
- Maynard Webb, Founder, Webb Investment Network; Co-Founder, Everwise; Director at Visa and Everwise
- Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube
Marc Benioff
Chairman & CEO
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 ten software company in the world and the largest CRM company.
For its revolutionary approach, Salesforce has been named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies seven years in a row by Forbes Magazine, one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies in the software industry five years in a row, and a Fortune Best Company to Work For nine years in a row.
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, 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 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 believes that businesses are the greatest platforms for change in the world. He has embraced World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s multi-stakeholder approach to leadership, serving not only shareholders but all stakeholders--including customers, employees, partners, communities and the environment--to make the world a better place. Benioff is also inspiring fellow business leaders to do the same. He led a group of CEOs and business leaders in opposing state legislation that discriminated against LGBTQ communities, and instituted a company-wide salary assessment at Salesforce to ensure men and women were being paid equally for comparable work.
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 received a B.S. in Business Administration in 1986 and an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2014 from the University of Southern California.
He is the author of three books, including the national best seller, Behind the Cloud.
Keith Block
Vice Chairman, President and COO
Keith Block is the Vice Chairman, President and COO of Salesforce and serves on its board of directors. He leads the company’s day-to-day operations, including its rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar global sales and services business, alliances and channels, industry strategy, corporate development, corporate affairs, marketing and business operations.
Block has managed world-class sales, consulting and engineering teams for nearly 30 years, with a focus on customer transformation. Prior to joining Salesforce in 2013, Block served as Oracle’s executive vice president of North America Sales and Consulting, leading a multi-billion dollar sales and services business unit that achieved record revenue and margin during his tenure. He began his career at Booz Allen Hamilton as a senior consultant.
Block currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Information Technology Community as a Governor, the Board of Trustees for Carnegie-Mellon University, the Advisory Board at Carnegie-Mellon University Heinz Graduate School and the Board of Trustees at the Concord Museum. He is also actively involved with the Boston Partners in Education, a nonprofit focused on enhancing the academic achievement and personal growth of Boston’s public school students.
Block holds a Master’s of Science degree in Management and Policy Analysis and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Information Systems from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Craig Conway
Former CEO, PeopleSoft
Craig Conway has enjoyed one of the most distinguished and successful careers in the technology industry. He has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Managers by BusinessWeek, one of the Ten Most Influential People In High Technology by , and one of the Fifty Most Powerful People in Networking by NetworkWorld.
As president and chief executive officer, Conway has led several technology companies to success including most recently, PeopleSoft. Conway joined PeopleSoft in 1999 and began one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the technology industry. His vision to develop the industry's first pure Internet architecture, determination to expand into new products and markets, and intense focus on execution drove PeopleSoft to become the world's second-largest provider of business software. In 2002 Fortune magazine named PeopleSoft the Second Most Admired Company, and Forbes magazine named PeopleSoft one of Five Overachieving Companies.
On June 2, 2003, Conway announced the acquisition of JD Edwards, making PeopleSoft a $2.9 billion company with 12,000 customers in 150 countries and starting a wave of industry consolidation. Four days later PeopleSoft itself became a takeover target by Oracle, and so began the longest hostile takeover attempt in history. Eighteen months later PeopleSoft was sold for $10.3 billion, almost $4 billion more than Oracle's initial offer and $7 billion more than the value of the company when Conway took over as CEO.
Conway has also served as president and CEO of TGV Software and One Touch Systems. He has also held executive management positions at a variety of leading technology companies including executive vice president at Oracle.
Alan Hassenfeld
Director, Hasbro, Inc.
Neelie Kroes
Former Vice President of the European Commission
Colin Powell
General, Former U.S. Secretary of State, Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sanford Robertson
Principal, Francisco Partners
John V. Roos
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan
John Roos is a former United States Ambassador to Japan and a former technology lawyer. Before accepting the ambassadorship from President Barack Obama, Roos was the CEO of Silicon Valley-based law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Roos served as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2009 to 2013, a historic period in U.S.-Japan relations where he played a key role in managing the relationship through major transitions of government. Roos led the American mission to support Japan's response to the devastating 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis on March 11, 2011. In October 2011, citing his tireless and effective leadership after March 11, the Department of State awarded Roos the prestigious Sue E. Cobb 2011 Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service.
Prior to his ambassadorship, Roos served as Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the leading law firm in the U.S. in the representation of technology, life sciences, and emerging growth companies. There he helped lead his firm during the waves of innovation in Silicon Valley, from the growth of software and communications, to the Internet Age, to the emergence of biotechnology, clean technology and renewable energy, to the social media revolution.
Roos grew up in San Francisco and attended Stanford University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors and Distinction, and Stanford Law School, earning his Juris Doctor in 1980, achieving Order of the Coif. Throughout his career, Roos has been active in public service, serving on a public school board in California from 1991 to 1999. Prior to becoming Ambassador to Japan, Roos served on the Stanford School of Education Dean's Advisory Board and on the Law School Dean's Advisory Council. He was elected to membership in the Stanford Associates for his long-standing volunteer service to the University.
Bernard J. Tyson
Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals
Robin L. Washington
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Gilead Sciences Inc.
Washington joined Gilead in 2008 and is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer where she oversees the Global Finance and Information Technology organizations. Washington was previously Chief Financial Officer of Hyperion Solutions, which was acquired by Oracle Corporation in March 2007. Prior to that, Washington served in a number of executive positions with PeopleSoft, most recently in the role of Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller.
Washington previously served on the Board of Directors of Tektronix, Inc. (acquired by Danaher), the Board of Directors of MIPS Technologies Inc. (acquired by Imagination), and currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Honeywell, the Board of Directors of the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum and the Board of Visitors, Graziadio School of Business and Management, Pepperdine University.
Maynard Webb
Founder, Webb Investment Network; Co-Founder, Everwise; Director at Visa and Everwise
Susan Wojcicki
CEO, YouTube
Susan Wojcicki is CEO of YouTube, the world’s most popular digital video platform used by a billion people across the globe to access information, share video, and shape culture. An early champion of online video, Wojcicki was instrumental in Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube. She now oversees YouTube's content and business operations, engineering, and product development.
Prior to joining YouTube in February 2014, Wojcicki was senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products, including Google Images and Google Books. In 2002, Wojcicki began working on Google’s advertising products and over the next 12 years she led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google’s monetization platforms.