Crusading tech mogul aims to prove CEOs can be activists too

In a forthcoming book, 'Trailblazer', due out Oct 15, Benioff calls on activist CEOs to lead a revolution that puts the welfare of people and the planet ahead of profits. — AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Salesforce founder Marc Benioff oversees a US$130bil (RM545.02bil) software empire from a 62-story skyscraper that towers above everything else in San Francisco. But he sits uneasily in his lofty perch because of a worsening economic divide on the streets down below, where the lavish pay doled out to tech workers like his are pricing many people out of affordable housing.

So he's urging fellow CEOs to help fix a "train wreck" of inequality his industry helped create. He wants them to take a stand on homelessness, along with other polarising issues such as gay rights, climate change and gun control, to fill what he considers a leadership void that is paralysing government in times of crisis.