Salesforce promotes Bret Taylor to Vice Chair of the Board and co-CEO alongside Marc Benioff, effective immediately
many congrats! https://twitter.com/... Deepak Singh / @mndoci : Is this is a good time to say that I miss FriendFeed :) https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Bret Taylor who became the chairman of Twitter's board yesterday is now the Co-CEO of Salesforce. I was just wondering why he'd take the board gig since he was in the running for CEO but looks like he said “why not both?” like a true boss. Nicely done. https://www.axios.com/... Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken : Bret Taylor just set some sort of record for promotions and new jobs in a two-day period. https://www.cnbc.com/... Megan Quinn / @msquinn : Amazing news, congrats @btaylor! You must have had an awesome PR chaperone at OSCON '04, that has to be it. https://twitter.com/... Jeremy C. Owens / @jowens510 : Salesforce stock is falling because the guidance is about 10 cents a share lower than estimates. But $CRM just beat its previous guidance by 35 cents a share IN THE SAME REPORT, so why even bother worrying about that? https://twitter.com/... Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp : A big week for Bret Taylor. He's made co-CEO of Salesforce the day after he was appointed chair of Twitter's board. https://www.cnbc.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : The chairman of Twitter has a new side hustle https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Taylor’s rise had been building since his move to COO, where related coverage tied him to Salesforce’s Slack acquisition, and sources later reported that he expected a CEO promotion. The new structure formalizes that succession path while placing him alongside Benioff rather than replacing him outright.
The broader record also shows the arrangement was not permanent: Salesforce later said Taylor would leave the co-CEO and vice-chair roles in early 2023, with Benioff continuing as chair and CEO.
First-order effects
- Taylor immediately gains shared chief-executive authority and a vice-chair seat, while Benioff remains in the top leadership structure.
- Miguel Milano becomes COO, separating day-to-day operating responsibility from Taylor’s expanded board and co-CEO remit.
Second-order effects
- Salesforce’s executive bench is reorganized around a defined succession layer: Taylor’s expanded role elevates Milano as the operating lieutenant beneath the co-CEOs.
- Taylor’s simultaneous Twitter chairmanship concentrates high-level governance responsibilities in one executive, linking two companies’ board-level demands on his time.
Third-order effects
- The move points to co-CEO arrangements as a way for large software companies to test succession without an immediate founder handoff; Taylor’s later departure shows that structure can remain transitional rather than become a durable model.
- As boards use chair and vice-chair roles alongside operating titles, leadership succession becomes more board-managed and less dependent on a single, abrupt CEO replacement.
The trend: Large technology companies are increasingly using layered board and operating roles to manage CEO succession while preserving founder continuity.