Salesforce Appoints Tony Prophet as Chief Equality Officer

Proven technology industry executive and human rights advocate to lead company’s equality initiatives, reporting to Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2016 – Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, today announced Tony Prophet will join the company as Chief Equality Officer, effective September 26, 2016. Prophet will be responsible for leading the company’s equality initiatives, focusing on gender, LGBTQ and racial equality. He will report to Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff.

Prophet is a respected leader who has held senior executive roles at Microsoft and HP. He most recently served as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Education Marketing. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Gannett, where he chairs the Transformation Committee.

Throughout his career, Prophet has worked as a champion for human rights and social justice, including protecting the rights of young workers, educating female workers on health issues in developing countries, improving schools for children of migrant workers and addressing the root causes of migratory worker flows. He is also passionate about community service, focusing on ensuring low income teens get college educations as well as improving health care for children and HIV positive women in the San Francisco Bay area.

Comments on the news:
“Equality is a core value at Salesforce, and part of the fabric of our culture,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “Tony will be an incredible addition to our leadership team as our first Chief Equality Officer. His experience as a leader in technology companies and his deep commitment to social issues make him the perfect fit for this key role.”
“Salesforce has been at the forefront of making equality—not just diversity and inclusion—and the education and healthcare of our youth issues that every business needs to address,” said Tony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer, Salesforce. “This is an incredible opportunity to have not just an impact at Salesforce, but more broadly in the tech industry and beyond.”

Background on Tony Prophet
Prior to joining Salesforce, Prophet served as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Education Marketing, where he defined the Microsoft Education business model, channel and market strategy. He was Co-Executive Sponsor of Blacks at Microsoft and founding Executive of BlackLight, an organization empowering black marketers at Microsoft.
Prior to that he led operations for HP’s Printing & Personal Systems business as a Senior Vice President.
He also held executive positions at United Technologies Corporation (UTC), Honeywell and was a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Prophet serves on the Board of Directors of Gannett and is Chairman of the Transformation Committee.
Prophet holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Kettering University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.