Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff Named 2009 Executive of the Year by the San Francisco Business Times

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that its chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff has been named Executive of the Year by the San Francisco Business Times.  "For defying the fierce business downdraft — and taking the lead role in the creation of an industry — the San Francisco Business Times has named Benioff the Executive of the Year," writes Patrick Hoge of the San Francisco Business Times.    

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

Staying Buoyant in the Cloud:

Despite the challenging economic times, The San Francisco Business Times says, "By nearly any metric, Salesforce has been on a multi-year growth tear. Revenue has more than doubled from less than $500 million four years ago. From Feb. 1 to Oct. 31, the company added the largest number of customers and subscribers in its history, picking up 12,500 new customers with approximately 500,000 new 'seats' (employees at customer companies who are licensed to use its software). The number of Salesforce employees has also mushroomed, rising from roughly 2,000 four years ago to the current 3,800 plus, 300 of them added in the last year."  

Supporting Quotes

• Marc Benioff's reaction to the news:  "I am honored to receive this recognition, an achievement that is only possible because of the success of our customers and our cloud computing model."  
• Ray Wang, an analyst with the Altimeter Group said, "They have continued to push and to innovate.  That's one of the reasons why Benioff is definitely one of the top executives in the industry, and he definitely has a clear vision of where he wants to go next."  
• "Marc Benioff's vision and leadership combined with salesforce.com's follow-though for customer success is well deserving of this honor," said Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, CEO and President of Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. "Salesforce.com is helping us transform Goodwill's relationship with our 200,000 shoppers, donors and friends into a powerful agent of sustainable social good."

Supporting Resources

• For the full story on the San Francisco Business Times' Executive of the Year story, please visit: http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/12/28/story1.html

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service.  The company's Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) helps customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud.  Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.  

As of October 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 67,900 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks.  Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all.  Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.  Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM".  For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2009 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com