Ron Conway skewers Marc Benioff in board resignation after 25 years: ‘I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired’

Conway, who has been on the board of the Salesforce Foundation for a decade and has been a close friend of Benioff for more than 25 years, told Benioff in a fiery email that their values ​​were no longer aligned and that he was resigning as director. Email, which he viewed New York Times, It exposed the rift between two of San Francisco’s most famous tech figures over Benioff’s political shift and his controversial call for federal troops to be deployed in the city.

“I am deeply saddened to say that in light of your recent comments, and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize a person I have long admired,” Conway, a major Democratic donor, wrote to Benioff in an email.

Conway was so upset by Benioff’s comments that he called his old friend about them, and they discussed the matter over the past few days, according to the email. But Conway was not satisfied with Benioff’s thinking about the risks posed by the Trump administration or the impact of his comments.

“I have expressed frankly to you, repeatedly, in recent days, my shock and disappointment at your comments calling for an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal forces, and at your willful ignorance and disconnection from the impacts of ICE’s immigration raids on families with no criminal record,” Conway wrote in the email.

Backlash in San Francisco

The resignation came after Benioff told… New York Times In an interview last week, he expressed his support for President Trump and believed National Guard troops should be deployed to San Francisco, where Salesforce is based, to help prevent crime. The comments of Benioff, a billionaire who was considered a rare progressive tech titan in Silicon Valley, angered leaders in the liberal city.

Conway told Benioff that San Francisco — “the place where you don’t live and where you don’t vote” — is trying hard to reduce crime and bolster its police ranks. Since the pandemic began, Benioff has lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he has purchased several pieces of land. He is registered to vote there, not in San Francisco

President Trump said Wednesday that San Francisco could be the next place he sends National Guard troops, and that he appreciates the “tremendous support” for such a deployment, a possible reference to Benioff and Elon Musk, who have also supported the idea. Although Trump has touted his use of the military to fight crime, the law generally prohibits troops from participating in domestic law enforcement.

Leaders in San Francisco condemned Benioff for his comments and suggestion that the president send troops to the city. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie released new statistics this week showing that homicides in San Francisco have reached their lowest levels in 70 years and that deaths from drug overdoses are also down.

Benioff is busy managing Dreamforce this week, but while he has previously said San Francisco is “more fun than Vegas”, he has also threatened in the past to move the event to Las Vegas, citing safety reasons. times.​

“Your obsession and constant annual threats to move Dreamforce to Las Vegas is ridiculous, because the reality is that Las Vegas has a higher rate of violent crime than San Francisco,” Conway wrote. “San Francisco doesn’t need a federal invasion because you don’t like paying to provide more security for Dreamforce.”

Benioff mostly avoided discussing Trump, ICE, H-1B and immigration visas during Dreamforce this week —luck’Jeremy Khan was at the scene and asked Benioff about it directly, but he said Tuesday that he only cares about everyone’s safety. Benioff did not immediately respond luckRequested comment on Conway’s resignation. But in a statement to luck, A Salesforce spokesperson offered a thoughtful response to Conway’s resignation, saying, “We have deep gratitude for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation’s Board of Directors for more than a decade,” noting the company’s all-time donation of $840 million to educational causes and public schools. ​