Marc Benioff

Benioff’s father, Russell, worked in retail, ran a family department store business in San Francisco, and headed a Bay Area clothing chain. Benioff attributes his work ethic and interest in entrepreneurship partly to his father’s influence.⁠[1]

At 14, he sold a piece of software called “How to Juggle” for $75, and at 15 he founded Liberty Software, which developed video games. While a student, he also worked in AppleAppleApple is a public technology company founded in 1976 and headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Its business includes the iPhone, Mac, iPad, wearables, and services such as digital content, payments, and cloud storage. The company builds its product system through in-house hardware, operating systems, and services.Open the full entry’s Macintosh division.⁠[2][1]

In 1986, he graduated from the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university in Los Angeles, California, planned by a group led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney and opened to students in 1880.Open the full entry’s Marshall School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. In 2014, the university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, which is recorded separately from his undergraduate education.⁠[3][2]

After graduating, Benioff worked at Oracle for 13 years and became the company’s youngest vice president at the time. He then left Oracle to pursue a startup delivering enterprise software as a service over the internet.⁠[3]

In March 1999, Benioff began developing Salesforce’s first customer relationship management product with Parker Harris, Frank Dominguez, and Dave Moellenhoff, working at first out of a rented apartment in San Francisco. In 2000, the company launched its service with the marketing theme “The End of Software,” emphasizing the use of enterprise software over the internet.⁠[4]

The company’s early years also coincided with the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Salesforce’s official timeline records that the company laid off about 20% of its employees in 2000. On June 23, 2004, the company completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.⁠[4]

Benioff championed the “1-1-1” philanthropy model, dedicating 1% each of the company’s equity, products, and employee time to communities; he later also co-founded the Pledge 1% movement, encouraging other companies to build philanthropy into their operations.⁠[5][2]

Salesforce launched AppExchange in 2005, providing an app distribution platform for third-party developers, and in 2016 launched Einstein, integrating AI features into its CRM.⁠[4]

Benioff has served as a USC trustee since 2010. In 2016, he and his wife, Lynne, donated $20 million to the university’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine to support cancer research and treatment facilities, in honor of his father.⁠[1]

In September 2018, TIME announced that Marc and Lynne Benioff had become its new owners. Editor Edward Felsenthal’s letter to staff explained that TIME would be held as a family investment, unaffiliated with Salesforce, and that the couple would not be involved in day-to-day operations. Benioff’s current official biography lists him as owner and co-chair of TIME.⁠[6][2]

On October 15, 2019, Trailblazer, which he co-wrote with Monica Langley, was published. The book discusses corporate culture, trust, customer success, and philanthropic responsibility, arguing that company growth can be combined with social goals; these ideas also form an important part of his public discussion of corporate values.⁠[7]

Under Benioff’s leadership, Salesforce acquired Tableau in 2019 and completed its acquisition of Slack in 2021, expanding its data analytics and enterprise collaboration businesses.⁠[4]

In April 2022, Marc Benioff took part in the $17 million Series A round of Warp (a developer terminal) led by Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan FieldDylan FieldDylan Field is the co-founder and CEO of Figma and an angel investor. He studied computer science and mathematics at Brown University, explored browser-based design tools with Evan Wallace, and founded Figma in 2012 with support from the Thiel Fellowship. His personal history also includes collecting digital art and investing in companies such as Mercury and Socket.Open the full entry. In June 2023, Zach LloydZach LloydZach Lloyd is a software engineer and entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Warp, a developer terminal and agentic development platform. He previously worked on Google Sheets at Google and founded Warp in 2020.Open the full entry announced that Warp had closed a $50 million Series B led by Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972, investing from the seed stage through the growth stage. Its historical investments include Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube, Airbnb, and Stripe; in 2021 it introduced the Sequoia Capital Fund structure, which can continue to hold public securities, and in 2023 its regional businesses became independent brands and partnerships.Open the full entry and listed Benioff among the existing investors who participated again; his individual investment amount was not disclosed.⁠[8][9]

On January 4, 2023, in a letter to employees filed with the SEC, Benioff announced layoffs of about 10% of staff. He acknowledged that revenue growth during the pandemic had led the company to overhire and said he took responsibility for it; the letter stated that affected U.S. employees would receive transition support including nearly five months of minimum pay and health insurance.⁠[10]

In 2024, the Benioffs announced a $150 million donation to HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry healthcare institutions to expand medical services and infrastructure and to support partnerships between local medical centers and UCSF Health. The institutions subsequently adopted the names Hilo Benioff Medical Center and Straub Benioff Medical Center.⁠[11]

In October 2025, Benioff drew criticism for expressing support for sending the National Guard to San Francisco. An open letter signed by Salesforce employees, former employees, community members, and others argued that this stance conflicted with the community values the company promotes and asked him to retract it.⁠[12][13]

On October 17, Benioff publicly reversed his position, saying he did not believe San Francisco needed the National Guard to intervene on public safety, and apologized for the concern his earlier remarks had caused. He explained that his original statement stemmed from excessive caution about security at the Dreamforce event.⁠[12]

In February 2026, at an internal meeting in Las Vegas, Benioff joked to international employees that ICEICEICE (Intercontinental Exchange) is a US financial-market infrastructure company founded in 2000. It operates exchanges and clearing services, fixed-income and data businesses, and mortgage technology. Its businesses include the New York Stock Exchange; founder Jeffrey Sprecher is chair and CEO.Open the full entry agents were on site watching them, upsetting some employees. 404 Media’s article was based on employee interviews and internal chat logs obtained by the reporter; the incident is a controversy arising from his public remarks as a manager.⁠[14]

On September 15, 2026, Benioff held a conversation with Sam AltmanSam AltmanSam Altman is an entrepreneur and investor, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI. He previously served as president of Y Combinator and founded the location-based social service Loopt. He also helped found Tools for Humanity and Merge Labs, has invested in energy and life sciences ventures, and has driven public discussion of AI governance, employment, and wealth distribution.Open the full entry at Dreamforce. The official program description published by Salesforce summarized the topics as frontier developments in AI and how to turn model capabilities into trusted tools for enterprises.⁠[15]

On September 16, Salesforce unveiled AIforce, positioning it as a dynamic interface layer connecting Salesforce data, workflows, and business rules, with initial offerings including Claudeforce, Slackforce, and Agentforce Coworker. In the announcement, Benioff advocated combining model capabilities with enterprises’ own business context; the product name is distinct from the company’s earlier Agentforce agent product line.⁠[16]

On September 17, he introduced Slack Code on his public account, calling for teams to build together. The company’s announcement at the time described the product as a workspace for jointly using coding agents in SlackSlackSlack is a team communication and collaboration platform developed from an internal tool at Tiny Speck. It organizes work through channels, direct messages, searchable history and integrations, with features including Huddles, Clips, Canvas and AI assistance. Its paid service launched in February 2014, and Salesforce completed its acquisition in July 2021.Open the full entry.⁠[17][16]

Salesforce: The enterprise software company he co-founded and leads as Chair and CEO. Official website: https://www.salesforce.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

TIME: The media organization of which he is owner and co-chair. Official website: https://time.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2][6]

Pledge 1%: The corporate philanthropy movement he co-founded. Official website: https://pledge1percent.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Official profile: https://www.salesforce.com/company/marc-benioff-bio/ (opens in a new window). X: Public account: https://x.com/Benioff (opens in a new window).⁠[2][18]