Salesforce appoints Tony Prophet as first Chief Equality Officer

by Abhinav Mohapatra

After building the 1-1-1 philanthropy program–that leverages Salesforce’s technology, people, and resources with a pledge to give 1% of its resources forward to support organizations and improve communities — Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce, has announced Tony Prophet as the CRM company’s first Chief Equality Officer to drive initiatives in areas like racial diversity and equal pay. He will hold the position with effect from September 26, 2016. Prophet will be responsible for striving Salesforce’s equality campaigns and will also focus on sensitive issues like gender discrimination and LGBTQ causes, at work in the world of tech. And will directly report to and help chief, Benioff in advocating social activism. He considers it to be an incredible opportunity to have not just an impact at Salesforce, but more broadly in the tech industry and beyond.
He said, “Salesforce has been at the forefront of making equality—not just diversity and inclusion—and the education and healthcare of our youth issues that every business needs to address.”
He also took to Twitter and tweeted: Prior to joining Salesforce, Prophet served as Microsoft‘s Corporate Vice President (VP) of Education Marketing, where he defined the Microsoft Education business model, channel and market strategy. He was Co-Executive Sponsor of Blacks at Microsoft and Founding Executive of BlackLight, an organization empowering black marketers at Microsoft. He has also worked with HP, where he led operations for the organization’s Printing & Personal Systems business as a Senior Vice President. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Gannett, where he chairs the Transformation Committee. Outside office, he has also worked for human rights and social justice, including protecting the rights of young workers, educating female workers on health issues in developing countries, improving schools for children of migrant workers and addressing the root causes of migratory worker flows, vouches Salesforce. Benioff, who has been vocal about his concerns regarding lack of racial diversity in the Silicon Valley and economical disparity between men and women–something Salesforce is trying to fight–believes that hiring a senior executive run the mission will do the needful. However hiring one of Microsoft’s (Salesforce’s foe-turned-friend-turned-foe) former executive is sure to see a lot of raised eyebrows.
“Equality is a core value at Salesforce, and part of the fabric of our culture. Tony will be an incredible addition to our leadership team as our first Chief Equality Officer. His experience as a leader in technology companies and his deep commitment to social issues make him the perfect fit for this key role,” Benioff said in a statement.
In a Twitter chat: