Salesforce leadership addressed the controversy around CEO Marc Benioff’s recent jokes about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to audio of an internal meeting reviewed by Business Insider.
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Salesforce President Robin Washington spoke at an all-hands meeting on Thursday, the first companywide gathering since the episode in February when Benioff joked that ICE was tracking international employees.
Washington, also the company’s chief operating officer and CFO, didn’t mention Benioff’s specific comments, but assured employees that the company was listening to them and taking appropriate action.
“We’ve got different ways of thinking, different opinions, different ways that we approach things,” Washington said, according to the audio. “What unites us is our values and how we take care of our employees.”
“It doesn’t mean we get it right all the time, but what it does mean is when we don’t get it right we appropriately engage and we’ve got various ways in which we do that,” she added.
Benioff’s comments drew criticism from some employees and executives, including Salesforce cofounder Parker Harris who said “Marc made a very bad joke,” and that he was “not OK with it.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of listening a lot of engagement from a lot of leaders and their all-hands meetings,” Washington said on Thursday. “It’s really important feedback and I want you to know that you’ve all been heard, that we’re listening and that we’re appropriately adjusting.”
The controversy comes in the midst of concern about AI disrupting software-as-a-service business models, including Salesforce offerings. Benioff downplayed those fears during the company’s latest earnings call, and did not address the ICE controversy.
Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
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