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Salesforce names Tony Prophet as its first chief equality officer

Prophet, who comes to Salesforce from Microsoft, will lead initiatives to improve gender, LGBTQ, and racial equality.
Written by Stephanie Condon, Senior Writer
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Salesforce on Thursday announced that Tony Prophet will serve as the company's first ever chief equality officer.

Starting on Sept. 26 and reporting directly to CEO Marc Benioff, Prophet will lead Salesforce initiatives to improve gender, LGBTQ, and racial equality.

Prophet most recently worked at Microsoft as corporate vice president of education marketing. He was also a co-executive sponsor of Blacks at Microsoft and a founding executive of BlackLight, an organization built to empower black marketers at Microsoft. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president for HP's Printing & Personal Systems business. He currently serves on the board of directors of Gannet.

"Throughout his career, Prophet has worked as a champion for human rights and social justice, including protecting the rights of young workers, educating female workers on health issues in developing countries, improving schools for children of migrant workers and addressing the root causes of migratory worker flows," said Salesforce in a press release. "He is also passionate about community service, focusing on ensuring low income teens get college educations as well as improving health care for children and HIV positive women in the San Francisco Bay area."

Salesforce has actively worked to address the lack of diversity and economic parity in Silicon Valley, as well as social justice issues more widely. For instance, earlier this year, the company said it was taking steps to reduce unexplained differences in salaries between men and women. Also, Salesforce is one of several Silicon Valley companies that has taken a stand against anti-LGBTQ laws, such as North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2.

Still, Salesforce -- like many companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere -- still has its own diversity issues. Just 2 percent of Salesforce employees are black, and just 4 percent are Hispanic.

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