Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff Recognized with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award

Marc Benioff, the chair and CEO of Salesforce, will receive the Yale Legend in Leadership Award at the Yale CEO Summit on June 11, which will take place virtually via Zoom. The award, conferred by the unanimous vote of Yale representatives and past award winners, will be presented by Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Bob Iger, CEO of Disney; Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM; and Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile.

Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, commented:

“Marc Benioff is a global business visionary, a trailblazing entrepreneur, and an icon of values-first leadership. I am delighted to recognize him with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award. Marc Benioff truly stands alone among his peers on so many fronts.

“His business accomplishments need no trumpeting. Since founding Salesforce over 25 years ago, Marc Benioff has guided the company through numerous life stages and challenges to become one of the most successful companies in the world, closing FY24 with over 72,000 employees as of fiscal year 2024, nearly $35 billion in revenue, and surpassing 30% in NGAAP margins.

“An original cloud computing pioneer, Marc Benioff is now on the front lines of the AI revolution. With Einstein Copilot Salesforce has created a conversational AI assistant that can take action across every part of their customer’s business. Furthermore, Salesforce has prioritized transparency and trustworthiness in its AI efforts, consistent with its vaunted position as one of the largest repositories of customer data and metadata in the world through its Data Cloud.

“Marc Benioff also models how doing well is not antithetical to doing good. With its 1-1-1 model of philanthropy, Salesforce commits one percent of its equity, technology, and employees’ time towards service to help build a more equitable and sustainable world. To date, this has resulted in more than $700 million in grants, nearly 9 million employee service hours, and 59,000 nonprofits and schools using free and discounted Salesforce technology. The company has also catalyzed the Pledge 1% movement, which follows Salesforce’s philanthropic model and has been adopted by thousands of companies globally. Marc and his wife Lynne have committed billions of their own personal philanthropic efforts towards improving global healthcare and the environment, supporting public education, and alleviating homelessness, among many other efforts.

“Marc Benioff is one of the most impactful, inspiring, and admired business leaders operating today. He embodies the values, accomplishments, and impact the Yale Legend in Leadership Award was designed to recognize.”

The Yale Legend in Leadership Award was created 35 years ago to honor current and former CEOs who serve as living legends to inspire chief executives across industries, sectors, and nations. Past recipients include: Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile; Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank; Arvind Krishna, chair & CEO of IBM; Steven Spielberg, filmmaker and chair of Amblin Partners; Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell; Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine; Doug Parker, chairman of American Airlines; Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer; Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy; Lisa Su, CEO of AMD; Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID; Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart; Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International; Andrew J. Young, mayor of Atlanta (1982-1990) and ambassador to the United Nations (1977-1979); Brian C. Cornell, chair and CEO of Target Corporation; Ivan G. Seidenberg, chair and CEO of Verizon Communications; Ken Frazier, chair and CEO of Merck & Co.; Randall L. Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T; Colin Powell, four-star U.S. Army general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), and secretary of state (2001-2005); Virginia M. “Ginni” Rometty, chairman, president, and CEO of IBM; Janet Yellen, United States secretary of the treasury; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever PLC; Mary T. Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors Company; Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO of Bank of America; David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-executive chairman of the Carlyle Group; Leonard S. Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast; Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin; Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; and Ken Chenault, chair and CEO of American Express.
The Summit theme is “The Internet @ 50 What Experts Got Right & Wrong—Impact On Your Business.”

Our leadership partners include: IBM, Deloitte, Gladstone Place Partners, and Paul Weiss.

About Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff is Chair, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Salesforce and a pioneer of cloud computing. Under Benioff's leadership, Salesforce has become the third-largest enterprise software company and the largest enterprise applications company in the world. He also co-founded the Pledge 1% movement, committing 1% of Salesforce’s equity, product and employee time to the community since the company’s founding 25 years ago. Today, more than 20,000 companies have adopted the 1-1-1 model. He is the owner and co-chair of TIME.