Board of directors

The salesforce.com 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.com is comprised of:

 

Marc Benioff
Chairman & CEO

Marc Benioff

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, cloud computing 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 leader in enterprise cloud computing. For its revolutionary approach, salesforce.com has received a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, been lauded as one of Businessweek’s Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, named No. 7 on The Wired 40, and was selected by Forbes as the World’s Most Innovative Company in 2011.

Benioff has been widely recognized for pioneering innovation. In 2010 he was awarded the David Packard Medal of Achievement and was named by Fortune one of the Top 50 People in Business as well as one of the Smartest People in Tech. He has been honored as the San Francisco Business Times Executive of the Year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

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. Benioff is also the author of three books, most recently the national best seller Behind the Cloud.

Throughout his career, Benioff has 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—which established the “1-1-1 model,” whereby the company contributes one percent of product, one percent of equity, and one percent of employee hours back to the communities it serves. 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 Young Global Leaders. In 2007 the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy presented Benioff with the coveted Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award and a year later welcomed Benioff to its distinguished board of directors. In 2008, for his thought and action leadership in corporate responsibility, CRO Magazine named Benioff CEO of the Year. In 2010 Benioff and his wife were honored by Barron’s as one of the top 25 Most Effective Philanthropists.

Prior to launching salesforce.com, Benioff, a 30-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:

  • David Packard Medal of Achievement, 52nd Award Recipient, 2010
  • Fortune Top 50 People in Business, 2010 (No. 18)
  • Fortune The Smartest People in Tech, 2010
  • Barron’s Top 25 Most Effective Philanthropists, 2010 (No. 19)
  • San Francisco Business Times Executive of the Year, 2009
  • v3.co.uk Top Ten Technology Visionaries, 2009
  • InternetNews.com CEO Vision Awards, 2009
  • VNU Top Ten Greatest IT Chief Executives, 2008
  • CRO Magazine CEO of the Year, 2008
  • Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 2007
  • eWEEK Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, 2007 (No. 7)
  • Business 2.0 50 People Who Matter Now, 2006 (No. 11)
  • Network World Top 50 Most Powerful People, 2006
  • 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
  • Fortune Top 10 Entrepreneurs to Watch, 2003
  • International Oracle Users Group True Friend of the User Community, 1995

 

Craig Conway
Former CEO, PeopleSoft

Craig Conway

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.

Alan Hassenfeld

Alan Hassenfeld is a director of Hasbro, a worldwide leader in children's and family leisure time entertainment with $2.9 billion in revenues and an impressive blue-chip portfolio of familiar and popular brand names such as PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, and PARKER BROTHERS. Hassenfeld began his career at Hasbro in 1970. He was appointed vice president of marketing and sales in 1978, became the president of the company in 1984, and received the titles of chairman and CEO in 1989. In May 2003, he passed on the responsibilities of CEO in order to fully concentrate on his position as chairman and served as chairman until February 2008. Hassenfeld sits on the board of the Salesforce.com Foundation as well as Hasbro's two philanthropic divisions, the Hasbro Charitable Trust and the Hasbro Children's Foundation. He is the former chairman of the Right Now! Coalition and Admiral of Rhode Island Commodores (a governor-appointed business advisory group). Hassenfeld is the recipient of the Honorary Doctor of Humanities Award from Bryant College and the Honorary Doctor of Business degree from Roger Williams University and Johnson and Wales University.

 

Craig Ramsey
Former CEO, Solidus Networks, Inc.

Craig Ramsey

A 35-year veteran of the technology industry, former Siebel Systems Executive Vice President Craig Ramsey joined salesforce.com's board of directors in April 2003, assuming the position vacated in 2000 by Lawrence J. Ellison, chairman and CEO of Oracle. While at Siebel, Ramsey served as executive vice president of worldwide sales and oversaw the company's sales growth from $4 million to more than $1.5 billion.

Ramsey most recently served as CEO of Solidus Networks, a biometrics payment company. Previously, Ramsey was vice president of U.S. sales at Oracle and has held positions at Amdahl as well as other high-tech software and hardware companies. Ramsey began his career in technology with IBM and currently sits on the board of ArcSight and Guidewire.

 

Sanford Robertson
Principal, Francisco Partners

Sanford Robertson

Sanford Robertson pioneered the creation of West Coast technology banking as an industry in the late 1960s and has remained one of the industry's most renowned participants. He served as vice president and director at Smith Barney before founding a firm that later became Montgomery Securities. In 1978, he founded Robertson, Stephens & Co, one of the most significant underwriters of IPOs, mergers, and acquisitions. After selling the company in 1998, he founded Francisco Partners, the world's largest technology-focused private equity fund. Robertson has had significant financing involvement in over 500 growth technology companies, including 3Com (NASDAQ: COMS), America Online (NYSE: AOL), Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Ascend, Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL), E*Trade (NYSE: ET), Siebel, and Sun (NASDAQ: SUNW). He serves on the boards of Dolby Laboratories, Pain Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTIE), and the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving, as well as on the President's Board at the University of Michigan.

 

Stratton Sclavos
Partner, Radar Partners

Stratton Sclavos

Stratton Sclavos currently serves as partner of the investment firm Radar Partners. Sclavos formerly served as chairman and chief executive officer of VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of trusted infrastructure services to Web sites, enterprises, electronic commerce service providers, and individuals.

Sclavos also sits on the board of directors of Juniper Networks. He was recognized by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as the Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998 in the emerging companies category.

In addition to being active in the local community, Sclavos and his wife formed the Sclavos Family Foundation in 1999 to support charitable efforts in education and medical research.

Sclavos has also held executive management positions with several Silicon Valley technology companies. From 1994 to 1995, he was vice president of worldwide marketing and sales for Taligent, a joint venture of Apple, IBM, and Hewlett Packard. Sclavos served as vice president of worldwide sales and business development for GO Corporation, a mobile computing company, from 1992 to 1993. Prior to that, he spent five years at MIPS Computer Systems in various executive positions and as a member of the senior management team during the company's successful IPO in 1989 and subsequent merger with Silicon Graphics in 1992. Sclavos also held executive positions at Megatest, a semiconductor equipment firm, from 1982 through 1987. Sclavos holds a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California at Davis.

 

Larry Tomlinson
Former Senior Vice President and Treasurer, Hewlett-Packard

Larry Tomlinson

With over 35 years of global financial and administrative experience in a Fortune 15 corporation, Larry Tomlinson has substantial expertise in focusing management on achieving revenue and margin objectives during periods of both double-digit and slow growth. Since beginning his career at Hewlett-Packard in 1965, Tomlinson has held management and executive positions in multiple domestic and international divisions with responsibilities spanning controllership, tax, treasury, order fulfillment, information technology, distribution, logistics, and financial strategic alliances. He formerly served as senior vice president and treasurer for Hewlett-Packard.Tomlinson currently serves as a director of Coherent.

 

Maynard Webb
Chairman, LiveOps

Maynard Webb

Including his current role as chairman of LiveOps, Maynard Webb has 30 years of experience developing and leading high-growth companies. Webb served as chief operating officer at eBay, Inc. from 2002 to 2006 and was responsible for the company-wide implementation of all business strategies. Previously, he served as president of eBay Technologies, where he was responsible for all engineering and technical operations at eBay, including product and technology strategy, engineering, architecture, site operations, and customer support.

Prior to joining eBay, Webb was senior vice president and chief information officer at Gatewa, where he contributed to the company's rapid expansion and Internet-enabled business operations. In years prior, he has also worked at Quantum, Thomas-Conrad Corporation, Bay Networks, and IBM. Webb sits on the boards of several companies in addition to salesforce.com, including Admob. Webb received a bachelor's degree from Florida Atlantic University.

 

Shirley Young
President, Shirley Young Associates, LLC

Shirley Young

Shirley Young is president of Shirley Young Associates, a business advisory company, and serves as senior advisor to General Motors, China. From 1988 until 1999, she served as corporate vice president of General Motors Corp. As vice president for China strategic development and Asia-Pacific counselor, Young had key involvement with General Motors' two-billion-dollar investment in China's auto industry, particularly with Shanghai GM building Buick cars. Subsequently her responsibilities included operational responsibility for marketing, distribution, and sales in China. Prior to this, Young served as vice president for consumer market development at General Motors' headquarters, working across the various marketing divisions of the company.

Young also serves on the board of Teletech Holding. She has served as director of the Bank of America, Bell Atlantic/Verizon, Dayton-Hudson/Target, Holiday Inn/Promus/Harrah's, and the Bombay Company, and as vice chairman of the nominating committee of the New York Stock Exchange.

Young is governor and ex-chairman of the Committee of 100, a national Chinese-American leadership resource, and serves as chairman of the Committee of 100 Cultural Institute. She serves on the worldwide board of directors of The Nature Conservancy and on its Asia-Pacific Council. She is a founding member of the Committee of 200, an international organization of leading businesswomen. Young was appointed to the President's Commission on Executive Exchange and was a member of the Business Advisory Council for the U.S. State Department Agency for International Development.