Salesforce to add 600 jobs, double presence in Atlanta

Marc Benioff, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.com, has been outspoken about social issues. In 2016, he hinted at pulling resources out of Georgia during debate over a controversial bill. (Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris)

Marc Benioff, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Salesforce.com, has been outspoken about social issues. In 2016, he hinted at pulling resources out of Georgia during debate over a controversial bill. (Bloomberg photo by David Paul Morris)

Salesforce will announce plans today to expand its Atlanta office, adding 600 jobs and doubling its presence here.

The San Francisco-based software company, which has an office in Buckhead, has annual revenue of about $10 billion.

“Atlanta and the Southeast has been an unbelievable market for us, with so many international companies, the airport, a great university system,” said Warren Wick, company executive vice president. “This is an expression of confidence in the market.”

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Currently, the company has a range of jobs here, he said, "a little bit of everything," including sales and marketing, technology and human resource positions.

Salesforce, which mainly serves businesses, specializes in “customer relationship management” software.

The Buckhead officein Atlanta Plaza, will undergo renovations on a number of floors, and employees will start moving into those spaces next year, Wick said. The company plans to "build out" a top floor to replicate the top floors of other "Salesforce Towers" in other cities, he said.

As with those other offices, the top floor would be "open space" that could be used by charities for fund-raising, he said. "We think about real estate as an expression of culture."

That culture has already bumped up against the politics in Georgia.

Salesforce has been outspoken in support of gay rights and gay marriage.

In 2016, the company's founder and chief executive clashed with Georgia lawmakers who were considering a bill that would permit companies to decline to provide services for same-sex couples.

Marc Benioff threatened to shift some operations and large events out of the state if the bill passed. That bill did not become law.

Benioff left Oracle to found Salesforce in 1999. He recently purchased Time magazine.