Marc Benioff
He's the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world's largest software companies, which owns the popular messaging service Slack and is worth nearly $300 billion. He also owns Time magazine.
When I ask Benioff about the properties in the anonymous LLCs, things seem to take a turn. He starts speaking more quickly and fidgets with a piece of paper in his hand. He's reluctant to go through the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom call jumps in to say we can discuss later.
A couple of days before the interview, Benioff texted the same NPR colleague again, asking for intel on my story. Then he called me and demanded to know the title of this piece. During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, "It's my job. You have a job and I have a job." During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.
I leave the meeting disconcerted and still unclear about what exactly is happening with his land in Waimea.
The following day, I drive around with a photographer to take pictures of the town and Benioff's projects. We go to the property he described as a community center and are confronted by one of his employees. The photographer explains we're there to take photos of the outside of the building. Shortly afterward, I get a text from Benioff. His employee seemed to think we were "snooping," and he says he's escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, without going into detail — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn't respond to my question about the purpose of this call.
Yes, once you're a bad person you're always a bad person.
Again, it's statements like this which are just ridiculous. People change and if you think Bill Gates is doing a shitty/bad thing then we're fucked because of the lot he's by far the most charitable and looking to make the world better.
He's certainly done more than you or most people on the planet have done to help.
Pure lib-brain. If our society is dependent upon the philanthropy of billionaires, you are right, we ARE fucked. But he isn't looking to "make the world better," if that were the case he would be funding a socialist/communist party that would replace the Democrats in the United States, instead he is funding charter schools.
Jesus Chris, if you think a socialist/communist party is anything but terrible you need to look at history.
It's a great idea but it's fundamentally flawed and corrupt. Please read some books.
And no, don't twist my words into saying that we are dependent on billionaires. But pretending they're bad and are all evil/can't be part of a solution shows very poor critical thinking skills.
oof. My guy, I salute your tenacity. These folks here are the wrong crowd to ever give an inch on that stuff though.
Thanks. And yep, it's quite an extremist group..!