Benioff slammed by longtime VC ally over call for troops in San Francisco
By Biz Carson and Felipe Marques Bloomberg Venture capitalist Ron Conway is leaving the board of Salesforce Inc s philanthropic foundation after blasting Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff for calling on President Donald Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco Related Articles San Jose housing tower faces auction and foreclosure over failed loan Federal establishment to withhold million from California for not enforcing trucker English requirements Who s winning the blame championship over the shutdown Here s what a new poll shows Career experts say asking for a raise isn t off the table in a tough job region Average long-term US mortgage rate slips to nearing a low for It saddens me immensely to say that with your modern comments and failure to understand their impact I now barely recognize the person I have so long admired Conway disclosed in an email sent Thursday to Benioff and several board members of San Francisco-based Salesforce A copy of the message was reviewed by Bloomberg News Conway advised Benioff that he was 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 attacks on freedom of speech and other unlawful policies On Wednesday Trump floated San Francisco as a promising target for National Guard deployments as part of his federal crime crackdown Benioff narrated the New York Times last week that he supported such a move If they can be cops I m all for it he disclosed Conway declined to comment through a spokesperson while Benioff didn t respond to a request for comment A Salesforce representative announced in a message We have deep gratitude for Ron Conway and his incredible contributions to the Salesforce Foundation board The email was released earlier Thursday by the Times Trump has moved to deploy US troops and federal law enforcement functionaries to major cities including Los Angeles Washington Memphis Chicago and Portland to target crime and counter demonstrations against his deportations of undocumented asylum seekers The president has claimed that Democratic state and local administrators have failed to protect citizens and allowed violence to spiral out of control even as San Francisco s crime rates have fallen in latest months and the city is on track to see the fewest homicides since the s Conway s acrimonious message lays bare a larger conflict within Silicon Valley as tech luminaries including various longtime Democratic donors like Benioff have flocked to Trump In the tight-knit circle of big tech and venture capital that shift is causing tensions that are now bubbling up to the surface Conway has long been an ally of Benioff s and served on the foundation s board for more than a decade The founder of SV Angel Conway has been a major political donor backing Democrat Kamala Harris for president on He has also been involved in local San Francisco causes including helping fund Mayor Daniel Lurie s inauguration The comments caused an uproar in San Francisco where Benioff held his firm s Dreamforce event this week which attracts tens of thousands of Salesforce employees and customers Comedians Kumail Nanjiani and Ilana Glazer canceled their performances at the three-day event though neither publicly criticized Benioff or Salesforce according to the San Francisco Standard In his email Conway lambasted Benioff for his threats to move the event from the city Dreamforce is essential to San Francisco and the city bends over backward to make it a success he reported But San Francisco does not need a federal invasion because you don t like paying for extra safety for Dreamforce Bloomberg L P
