Published on
October 24, 2017
Variety honored his work to close the wage gap.
I was so pleased to present my friend Marc Benioff — the founder, CEO and chairman of Salesforce — with Variety's 2017 Empowerment Award for your efforts on Equal Pay.
Everyone now talks about purpose and values, and seeing the role of a business leader as being about more than just profit, but Marc was there when he founded Salesforce in 1999.
He has also used his voice to drive change, taking action on LGBTQ rights, education, children’s healthcare, and two years ago he was one of the first CEOs to speak out about equal pay.
Even more important, when Marc found out that there was a gender wage gap at Salesforce, he didn’t just issue a statement. He didn’t just appoint a committee to investigate and propose measures to remedy the situation. He actually committed the financial resources to begin to close the wage gap.
Watch the video below.
Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including international bestsellers Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company with the mission of improving health outcomes and productivity.
Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 17 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. She has been named to Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.