A venture capitalist has quit the board of his company’s philanthropic arm, blasting the CEO for backing Donald Trump and urging National Guard troops to be sent to San Francisco.
Democrat donor Ron Conway, a man dubbed the ‘Godfather of Silicon Valley,’ left the Salesforce Foundation after a decade, reportedly shocked at the support for Trump from company CEO Marc Benioff.
He told billionaire Benioff, regarded as a rare progressive at the top of tech giants, their “values were no longer aligned,” according to an email seen by The New York Times.
Conway’s resignation came after Benioff told the Times he “fully supported” Trump and would welcome National Guard troops in San Francisco because the city lacks police officers.
According to the newspaper, Conway wrote in his resignation email: “It saddens me immensely to say that with your recent comments, and failure to understand their impact, I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired.”
He slammed the “willful ignorance and detachment from the impacts of the ICE immigration raids of families with NO criminal record.”
He added, “I have expressed candidly to you, repeatedly, in recent days, that I am shocked and disappointed by your comments calling for an unwanted invasion of San Francisco by federal troops.”
The breakup came as San Francisco officials publicly rejected the idea of deploying troops, citing falling crime and new hires.
Mayor Daniel Lurie and law enforcement leaders pushed back, and local TV station KTVU noted homicides are at multi-decade lows.
Trump said Wednesday that San Francisco could be next for a deployment of National Guard troops.
The Times said Conway, a top Democratic donor, sent the resignation after days of private exchanges with Benioff, who in 1999 founded Salesforce, the U.S. cloud-software company best known for its customer-relationship management platform.
Salesforce Foundation is Salesforce’s independent charitable arm. It runs the company’s grant-giving—primarily to public school districts and education nonprofits—and anchors Salesforce’s “1-1-1” model, donating 1percent of equity, product, and employee time.
In 2019, Salesforce folded its separate social enterprise unit back into the company, with $300 million directed as part of that deal to the independent Foundation to fund future philanthropy.
The Foundation—which focuses on youth skills, tech literacy, educator recruitment, and college or career readiness—held nearly $400 million in assets and granted $36 million in 2023.
It made major awards to the San Francisco and Oakland school districts, and a $7.8 million workforce grant via the Tides Foundation, the Times reported.
Benioff, who has an estimated net worth of $10 billion, has been presiding over Dreamforce this week, an annual Salesforce conference that draws roughly 50,000 attendees, while also facing sustained criticism from City Hall.
Benioff told reporters Tuesday he “just wanted everyone to be safe,” according to the Times.
The Daily Beast has contacted Salesforce for comment.
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