The Benioffs Believe in Research

USC Trustee Marc Benioff ’86 and his wife, Lynne, are supporting construction of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC through a generous $20 million gift.

Marc Benioff has served as a member of the USC Board of Trustees since 2010. Widely recognized for his inspired leadership as CEO of Salesforce, he’s noted for integrating philanthropy into the core of business. During his tenure, Salesforce has grown from a groundbreaking idea into a Fortune 500 company and the fastest-growing top-10 software company in the world. Benioff previously spent 13 years at Oracle Corp., which was founded by Larry Ellison, the Ellison Institute’s primary benefactor.

Lynne Benioff is an independent marketing consultant and philanthropist. She is a member of the board of several organizations, including the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Foundation and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.

“Cancer has deeply impacted our family and too many other families around the world,” said Marc Benioff, whose father, Russell Benioff, passed away from prostate cancer in 2012. “We truly believe that by empowering and funding institutions doing important cancer research, we will be able to change the course of this disease.”