Benioff Builds Salesforce into $41B Leader with 1-1-1 Philanthropy

Marc Benioff is the CEO and Chair of Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management platform. He co-founded the company in 1999 with Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez after leaving his job at Oracle.

Born in San Francisco in 1964 to Jewish parents, Benioff developed video games as a teenager and used the earnings to fund his studies at the University of Southern California. He interned at Apple while in college and later joined Oracle, where he spent 13 years and became its youngest Vice President at age 26.

Benioff's philosophy behind Salesforce was to deliver customer relationship management software entirely over the internet, a concept known as software as a service or SaaS. Under his leadership, Salesforce has become one of the world's leading CRM platforms, reporting revenue of $41.5 billion and net income of $7.5 billion for fiscal year 2026.

Benioff is recognized for his philanthropic efforts through the 1-1-1 corporate model, where 1% of Salesforce's equity, product, and employee time are devoted to charitable causes. He has also been named one of the world's best-performing CEOs by Harvard Business Review.