Marc Benioff joins critics of tech industry 'stinginess' in S.F.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-marc-benioff-joins-critics-of-techies-in-sf-as-backlash-grows-20140123,0,514161.story



Salesforce.com Chief Executive Marc Benioff wants tech companies to respond to the backlash in San Francisco by giving more back to the community.

Marc Benioff joins critics of tech industry 'stinginess' in S.F.

By Chris O'Brien

January 25, 2014, 7:00 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- If you want to know how bad the tech backlash has gotten in this city, consider that the man who happens to run the city's largest technology company has now joined the chorus of those criticizing the industry.

Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce.com, is a native San Franciscan who has deep roots here. But after years of being a trailblazer for the industry in this city, he looks around and finds himself appalled by the scenes of luxury buses for techies clogging city streets, evictions soaring and a general indifference among his fellow techies to their impact on San Francisco.

In becoming a major philanthropist, he hoped that this would provide an example of community involvement that the rest of the tech industry would follow.

Instead, Benioff sees too many tech companies disinterested and disconnected from the city. Dismayed by what he calls his industry’s "stinginess" in giving to local communities, he's decided to speak out on the issue to get companies to change their attitudes before things become even more confrontational.