{"id":8344,"date":"2025-10-16T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/8344\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:21:12","slug":"billionaire-investor-ron-conway-quits-salesforce-foundation-over-benioff-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/8344\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire investor Ron Conway quits Salesforce Foundation over Benioff comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Conway, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and longtime Democratic donor, has resigned from the board of the Salesforce Foundation, citing a dramatic ideological rift with CEO Marc Benioff<\/a> over the billionaire\u2019s political shift and comments regarding the deployment of National Guard troops to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Conway, the founder of SV Angel and a figure often called the \u201cGodfather of Silicon Valley<\/a>,\u201d submitted his resignation in a heated email sent to Benioff Thursday morning that has been obtained by The Standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Conway\u2019s email to Benioff said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI 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, and by your willful ignorance and detachment from the impacts of the ICE immigration raids of families with NO criminal record, efforts to gerrymander elections, attacks on freedom of speech, and other unlawful policies,\u201d Conway\u2019s message continued.<\/p>\n

In contrast to Conway\u2019s fiery comments, a Salesforce spokesperson offered a measured response, thanking him for his tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have deep gratitude for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation Board for over a decade,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

The rupture between two Bay Area business titans was first reported by The New York Times (opens in new tab)<\/a>. It marks a significant break among the Bay Area\u2019s philanthropic elite, and also underscores deepening fissures within Silicon Valley over the tech industry\u2019s increasingly visible alignment with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\"MarcA screenshot Thursday shows Ron Conway listed as a member of the Salesforce Foundation\u2019s board of directors. | Source: Courtesy<\/p>\n

Benioff, a San Francisco native who built a reputation as a progressive philanthropist and vocal advocate for social causes, drew sharp criticism last week after he supported President Donald Trump\u2019s threatened deployment of National Guard troops to the city to address crime. In an interview with The Standard<\/a> on Friday night, Benioff defended those comments and restated his commitment to the city, disputing characterizations that his family has left San Francisco behind for a new life in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

He later downplayed the comments, saying his point was about local public safety collaboration.<\/p>\n

But Conway asserted in his email that Benioff had welcomed the National Guard as a way to avoid covering the price of extra security by local law enforcement during the massive annual Dreamforce conference, which concludes Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDreamforce is important to San Francisco and the City bends over backward to make it a success,\u201d Conway wrote. \u201cBut San Francisco does not need a federal invasion because you don\u2019t like paying for extra security for Dreamforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conway has been active in efforts to support immigration reform and has donated to gun-violence prevention organizations. He is a member of the Giving Pledge, a commitment by billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. In San Francisco\u2019s 2024 mayor\u2019s race, he contributed $100,000 to a political action committee that opposed the progressive candidacy<\/a> of former Supervisor Aaron Peskin.<\/p>\n

The split between the two men, who have known each other for decades, also reflects broader tensions within Silicon Valley between executives who have rushed to cultivate relationships with the Trump administration and philanthropists and investors who remain committed to Democratic causes.<\/p>\n

The Salesforce Foundation, created by Benioff to direct corporate giving toward education, nonprofits, and other causes, has distributed $840 million across San Francisco and beyond, according to a spokesperson. <\/p>\n

Conway\u2019s departure deprives the foundation of one of its most influential and respected board members.<\/p>\n

Benioff, over the past several days, has sought to soften his criticisms of San Francisco while simultaneously pledging $15 billion in investments in the city over the next five years. But his National Guard comments and his high-profile embrace of Trump have created lasting damage to his reputation among city officials and longtime allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ron Conway, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist and longtime Democratic donor, has resigned from the board of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2287,2288,8349,2570,101,103,102,104,106,105,2280],"class_list":["post-8344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-dreamforce","tag-marc-benioff","tag-ron-conway","tag-salesforce","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-silicon-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}