Executive team

The salesforce.com executive management team is made up of seasoned individuals who now seek to define salesforce.com as a world-class company delivering enterprise software with cloud computing.

The executive management team at salesforce.com is comprised of:

• Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO
• Blair Crump, President, Global Enterprise
• Parker Harris, Executive Vice President, Technology
• George Hu, Chief Operating Officer
• Hilarie Koplow-McAdams, President, Commercial/SMB Business Unit
• Maria Martinez, Executive Vice President, Customers for Life and Chief Growth Officer
• Burke Norton, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
• Graham Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Jim Steele, Chief Customer Officer
• Polly Sumner, President, Services & Customer Adoption
• Frank van Veenendaal, Vice Chairman

Marc Benioff
Chairman & CEO

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

Blair Crump
President, Global Enterprise

Blair Crump is president of salesforce.com’s global enterprise business unit.

Prior to joining salesforce.com, Crump was group president of worldwide sales and consulting services for Verizon Business, overseeing the company's enterprise, mid-tier, government, and education sales efforts globally.

In his previous position as senior vice president of premier and international sales for Verizon Business, Crump was responsible for delivering strategic sales and support for Verizon's largest enterprise customers throughout the world. Prior to that role, Crump held sales and marketing positions of increasing scope with responsibility for various markets and segments at MCI, which was acquired by Verizon in 2006. Crump began his career in 1983 with MCI as one of the company’s first sales representatives in New York City.

Crump holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Parker Harris
Executive Vice President, Technology

Parker Harris founded salesforce.com along with Marc Benioff, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez in the spring of 1999. As executive vice president, Harris oversees the development of all software for salesforce.com.

Prior to founding salesforce.com, Harris developed Web application and salesforce automation expertise at Left Coast Software, a private consulting company he co-founded, as well as at Metropolis software, an early pioneer in field sales force automation subsequently acquired by Clarify.

He graduated from Middlebury College with a bachelor's degree in English literature.

George Hu
Chief Operating Officer

George Hu owns all major shared operational functions at salesforce.com, including information technology, employee success, facilities, and security, as well as the platform division, global marketing, strategic alliances, and corporate development.

Hu joined salesforce.com in 2002 and has served in a variety of management roles including vice president of product marketing, senior vice president of applications, executive vice president of products, and chief marketing officer.

Prior to joining salesforce.com, Hu held product management and strategic consulting roles at North Point Communications and Boston Consulting Group. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard College and a master's degree in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Hu was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010.

Hilarie Koplow-McAdams
President, Commercial/SMB Business Unit

Hilarie Koplow-McAdams leads salesforce.com’s worldwide sales teams, focusing on growing the company’s business globally.

A software sales veteran, Koplow-McAdams spent 18 years in a variety of sales and product marketing leadership roles at Oracle, where she rapidly expanded the direct sales organization and launched new product lines. As senior vice president of the direct sales channel, she drove the company’s rapid growth in both the technology and applications markets.

Prior to joining salesforce.com, Koplow-McAdams was vice president of direct sales and a member of the executive committee at Intuit, where her responsibilities included driving sales strategies and execution for Intuit’s small business solutions.

Koplow-McAdams has a Master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree from Mills College.

Maria Martinez
Executive Vice President, Customers for Life and Chief Growth Officer

Maria Martinez heads the teams that are actively engaged with salesforce.com’s customers, focused on the company’s critically important value of customer success. Martinez’s teams are responsible for on-boarding, product usage, best practices, training, customer support, professional services, partner certification, and developing long-term relationships with salesforce.com customers.

Martinez has more than 30 years of experience in business and technology leadership roles. Prior to joining salesforce.com, Martinez managed Microsoft’s global services business, including professional services and customer support for all products. In her six-year tenure, Martinez led the business to outperform revenue targets and to significantly increase Microsoft’s customer satisfaction rating.

Prior to Microsoft, Martinez was president and CEO of Embrace Networks. She has also held senior leadership roles at Motorola and AT&T.

Martinez has a Master’s degree in computer engineering from Ohio State University and a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico.

Burke Norton
Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer

Burke Norton leads the legal, internal audit, compliance, and government affairs teams at salesforce.com and is a member of the company’s executive committee reporting to Chairman & CEO Marc Benioff.

Prior to joining salesforce.com, Norton was executive vice president and general counsel and a member of the office of the chairman at Expedia, where he was responsible for all legal and corporate affairs, government relations, corporate transactions, compliance, litigation, and intellectual property matters.

Previously Norton was a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, where he practiced corporate and securities law, representing clients in the enterprise software, telecommunications, semiconductor, life sciences, entertainment, and ecommerce industries, with an emphasis on complex corporate transactions, including public and private equity and debt financings and cross-border merger and acquisition transactions, as well as corporate governance, regulatory, and intellectual property matters.

Norton graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Graham Smith
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Graham Smith brings over 20 years of finance experience in the software industry to salesforce.com. As CFO, Smith is a member of the company’s executive committee reporting directly to Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.

Before joining salesforce.com in December 2007, Smith served as CFO of Advent Software, one of the leading providers of software and services to the investment management industry. Prior to Advent, Smith was CFO of Vitria Technology, an enterprise application integration software company. Prior to Vitria, Smith served as CFO for Nuance Communications, a voice-recognition software company, where he led the company through both private and public financings. Earlier in his career, Smith spent 11 years at Oracle in a variety of senior finance roles, lastly as vice president of finance for worldwide operations.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and politics from Bristol University in England and qualified as a chartered accountant in England and Wales.

Jim Steele
Chief Customer Officer

Jim Steele serves as our chief customer officer. He is charged with advancing the company's winning cloud computing strategy, customer success, and growing the customer base.

Steele joined salesforce.com in October 2002 from Ariba, where he served as executive vice president of worldwide sales.

Steele brings over 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience to his new role at salesforce.com. Previously, he served in a variety of executive roles at IBM. Most recently, Steele was vice president of the North America western area, where he was responsible for over $9 billion in hardware, software, and services sales of a 10,000 employee organization. His prior positions at IBM include nearly four years in Tokyo as vice president of systems sales as well as general manager of telecommunications in Asia Pacific where he led IBM to record revenue and market share growth.

Steele holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Bucknell University.

Polly Sumner
President, Services & Customer Adoption

Polly Sumner is responsible for customer success and ensuring that each customer gets maximum value from salesforce.com’s products and services.

Sumner’s move to salesforce.com in 2008 followed a 20-year career in executive management in the technology industry. She was a consultant to Warburg Pincus focusing on the telecommunications, financial services, and technology industries; president of global services at Telcordia; and president and CEO of Alphablox, an early pioneer in Web-based analytics for global enterprises that was bought by IBM in 2004.

Sumner also held several positions at Oracle between 1987 and 1999, including vice president and senior vice president roles in sales and alliances. Earlier in her 30-year technology career, Sumner worked at McDonnell Douglas and IBM.

Sumner holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Northern Arizona University and a master's degree from the American Graduate School of International Management.

Frank van Veenendaal
Vice Chairman

As president of worldwide sales and services at salesforce.com, van Veenedaal leads the global sales, customer support, and consulting services organizations. He is responsible for growing the company’s global customer base and driving adoption and retention to create customers for life.

van Veenendaal joined salesforce.com in August of 2001 and has served in a variety of executive management roles including president of global corporate sales, senior vice president of sales and services, and executive vice president of corporate sales and services. In these capacities he has been instrumental in the growth and evolution of the sales organization through the creation of innovative new compensation plans, pipeline development, sales segmentation, and growth strategies.

van Veenendaal brings over 25 years of technology sales and executive management experience to his roles at salesforce.com. Previously, he served as senior vice president of Actuate, a enterprise reporting and performance management software company. Prior to joining Actuate, he spent six years with Interleaf, where he served in various roles including that of regional director of sales. In the early stages of his career, van Veenendaal held various sales and sales management positions for high-tech companies such as Integrated Solutions, Pyramid, and Harris Corporation.

van Veenendaal holds bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.