Mr. Conway has been a close friend of Mr. Benioff for more than 25 years.
The comments by Mr. Benioff, a billionaire who had been considered Silicon Valley’s rare progressive tech titan, enraged leaders in the liberal city.
Mr. Conway, through a spokesman, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Mr. Benioff did not respond to a request for comment about the resignation.
Since the pandemic began, Mr. Benioff has lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he has bought several parcels of land.
Following Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s announcement last week that he fully supports President Trump and wants the National Guard to visit San Francisco, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist resigned on Thursday from the board of the company’s charitable arm.
For ten years, the venture capitalist Ron Conway served on the board of the Salesforce Foundation. He informed Mr. Dot Benioff that their values no longer coincided and that he was stepping down as a director in a scathing email that was seen by The New York Times on Thursday. Mr. Benioff and Mr. Conway have been close friends for over 25 years.
Regards, Mr. In the email, Conway stated that he resigned because Mr. Dot Benioff told The New York Times last week that he supported President Trump and believed that National Guard troops should be sent to San Francisco, the location of Salesforce, to help deter crime. The remarks made by Mr. Dot Benioff, a billionaire who was regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s few progressive tech titans, infuriated the liberal city’s leaders.
Mr. Conway, a prominent Democratic donor, sent Mr. Benioff an email that read, “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.”.
Mr. Conway declined to be interviewed for this article, according to a spokesman. An inquiry concerning the resignation was not answered by Mr. Dot Benioff.
When Mr. Dot Benioff spoke to The Times last week, he claimed that he had not kept up with the president’s attacks on the media, the government shutdown, or the ICE raids. Because San Francisco lacks enough police officers, he stated that he would be in favor of sending Guard troops there.
Although President Trump has praised his use of the military to combat crime, domestic law enforcement is typically prohibited by law.
San Francisco officials have denounced Mr. Benioff for his comments and for recommending that the president deploy troops to the city. This week, Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled new data indicating that drug overdose deaths and homicides in San Francisco had fallen to a 70-year low.
President Trump did, however, mention Mr. Benioff and Elon Musk, who also supported the idea, when he stated on Wednesday that San Francisco might be the next location he deploys National Guard troops and that he appreciates the “great support” for such a deployment.
Regards, Mr. Conway, who first invested in tech start-ups in the 1990s, earned the moniker “The Godfather of Silicon Valley” for his early backing of businesses that later grew to become industry titans like Google and PayPal.
According to the email, he was so troubled by Mr. Dot Benioff’s remarks that he spoke with his longtime friend about them, and they spent the next few days discussing the issue. The impact of Mr. Benioff’s comments and the threats posed by the Trump administration, however, did not satisfy Mr. Conway.
“I have told you honestly, several times in the last few days, that I am appalled and dismayed by your remarks advocating for an unwelcome federal military invasion of San Francisco, as well as by your deliberate ignorance and disinterest in the consequences of the ICE immigration raids on families with no criminal history,” Mr. Dot Conway wrote in the email. “.”.
Mr. San Francisco, “where you don’t even live or vote,” is working hard to lower crime and increase its police force, Conway told Mr. Dot Benioff. Mr. Dot Benioff has purchased multiple pieces of land on Hawaii’s Big Island since the start of the pandemic. Instead of San Francisco, he is registered to vote there.
According to the organization’s most recent tax filing, the Salesforce Foundation distributed $36 million in 2023 and had assets of almost $400 million at the end of the year. The organization’s main goals are to help underprivileged students by recruiting qualified teachers, promoting college readiness, and raising tech literacy.
The Oakland and San Francisco Unified School Districts, which primarily serve low-income students, were among the largest beneficiaries in 2023. The largest grant, $7.8 million, was given to the Tides Foundation, a social justice-focused progressive organization, to support employment opportunities.
Dear Mr. Around 50,000 people from all over the world attend Dreamforce, an annual conference in downtown San Francisco that Benioff currently chairs. In the past, he has threatened to relocate the event to Las Vegas for security reasons.
It’s ironic that you are obsessed with moving Dreamforce to Las Vegas and that you keep threatening to do so every year, given that violent crime is more common in Las Vegas than in San Francisco, Mr. Dot Conway wrote. You don’t want to pay for additional security for Dreamforce, so San Francisco doesn’t need a federal invasion. “”.
Mr. Benioff has largely shied away from talking about his Times interview at Dreamforce, but on Tuesday he told reporters that he only wanted everyone to be safe in order to defend his comments. When asked about Mr. Trump’s attacks on free speech or the changes to the H-1B visa program, which is essential for many tech companies, he did not answer.
