Salesforce Chief: White House Pledge is ‘What We Need’

The chairman and co-chief executive officer of Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) says signing the White House’s Pledge to America’s Workers is exciting for his company. Marc Benioff signed the pledge at an event this morning at Salesforce Tower in downtown Indianapolis, which was also attended by Ivanka Trump, advisor to President Donald Trump. Salesforce officially committed to help train 500,000 workers as part of the pledge, though Benioff said as he signed it that the company would increase that number to one million.

"This is exactly what we need to transform all of our workforce throughout America," said Benioff. "We can’t do this alone. We know that. We need to do it together in partnership not only with government, not only with industry, but with our community as well. I think that’s our message."

The Pledge to America’s Workers was launched in July. Benioff and Salesforce were part of that launch and Trump says while more than 215 companies have taken the pledge since then, Salesforce is the first to take it a step further.

"This was our way of getting our private sector to partner with us and say, ‘You owe it to your community. You owe it to your workforce and by the way, it’s good for you. This is a smart investment and there is a return on this investment and you’ll see it the minute you offer somebody the opportunity, the minute you upskill somebody, the minute you give them a chance,’ and the response has been incredible."