2008 Volunteers of the Year

2008 Volunteers of the Year

Americas, East

Americas, West

Europe, Middle East, Africa

Japan

Asia Pacific

Americas East

Susmita De, Senior Consultant

Chicago, Illinois [top]

Susmita De has a heart for service, gift for leadership and the tenacity to make things happen. Her involvement in the nonprofit community embodies the integrated philanthropy model of time, product and equity. Susmita contributed nearly 125 total volunteer hours to various organizations such as Habitat for Humanity New Orleans, SOS Children's Village Illinois, the Glass Slipper Project  and Volunteer Service Overseas. She tackled a Salesforce implementation project with Hopeworks 'N Camden which allowed them to increase their fundraising totals and helped garner the Foundation Hopeworks' "Hopester Award" for the corporation that has made substantial contributions to the organization's success. Susmita has been a champion in involving her colleagues in volunteering and contributing financial resources to make a positive impact in the Chicago community. Her terrific volunteer work has also translating into Dollars for Doers and Community Action Team grants for some of these organizations. Susmita is a perfect model of the Power of Us and is a worthy Volunteer of the Year recipient.

Daryl Mason, Senior Account Executive

Toronto, Canada [top]

Daryl Mason is a true example of how an employee with passion can make an impact in the community. As a co-leader of the Foundation sub-committee in Toronto, Daryl played a key role in making the Toronto office a volunteering powerhouse. Wanting to take community involvement to another level, Daryl created and organized a Swing for Change softball tournament that involved most of the Toronto office. Employees formed teams (with each team contributing money to the winner's pot) and spent a summer afternoon playing for a Toronto charity. The winning team played on behalf of the Kiwanis Boys & Girls Club  and, through the generosity of Toronto employees, awarded them with over $5,000 to use for their programs. Daryl's motto is "dream big and see what can be done." For his passion and commitment to making a positive impact, we're pleased to name Daryl a 2008 Volunteer of the Year.

Marlena Rogers, Principal Consultant

Austin, Texas [top] 

Marlena Rogers has spent nearly 70 hours using her skills to assist nonprofit organizations with Salesforce implementation Her dedication has enabled these nonprofits to take their use of Salesforce to the next level and, in turn, increase their community impact. Here is what a Senior Associate at Children Now says about Marlena. "Somehow, saying Marlena's a volunteer doesn't do her justice. During our implementation of Salesforce, she was more of a colleague and a 'guardian angel'; going above and beyond our expectations. We've fully integrated Salesforce and are currently looking for new and better ways to use it within our organization. We wouldn't be in this enviable position without foundation Marlena instilled in us." Time isn't the only thing Marlena has given to this organization. The hours she volunteered enabled her to provide the organization with a Dollars for Doers grant in the amount of $500. Thank you, Marlena, for being a star volunteer in 2008.

Anne Whiteford, Director, Authorized Training Centers

New York [top] 

Anne Whiteford has been the salesforce.com champion for So Others Might Eat , a Washington DC nonprofit dedicated to helping the poor and homeless of the nation's capital.  Not only has she promoted monthly volunteer engagement, but she's also organized supply drives to encourage her colleagues to contribute materials desperately needed by this organization.  Anne has also uses her valuable marketing skills to assist the American Cancer Society and spends countless hours volunteering at Glenelg Country School.  Glenelg's mission is to "emphasize a commitment to academic excellence, personal integrity, respect for others, and individual responsibility in order to become good citizens and moral leaders."  Anne is a great example to the youth of a "good citizen" and and an example to us of a great Volunteer of the Year

Americas West

Paul Constantinides, Senior Development Manager

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Paul has been selected as one of this year's Volunteers of the Year for his ongoing dedication to the community and to the Foundation. Paul has contributed to and led the Earth Council for two years. In that capacity, he has identified areas where the company can excel on the sustainability front and has engaged employees in support of those projects. Paul has also spearheaded a company wide Biking Initiative Community Action Team grant for two consecutive years. The program is designed to match every mile an employee bikes to work with $1 for the selected organization. In 2007, he led the group to ride over 10,000 miles for a $10,000 grant to Trips for Kids. This year, Paul and the team have a goal of 12,000 miles to benefit Pedal Revolution, a nonprofit bike shop in San Francisco that supports at-risk youth. Paul has also devoted many hours to leading and participating in events with Habitat for Humanity East Bay, Peninsula Habitat for Humanity, Glide Memorial Foundation, Raphael House, I'm All Ears, the Golden Gate Parks Service, Kaboom!, and Project Homeless Connect. In honor of his many selfless commitments, Salesforce.com Foundation has donated $500 in Paul's name to Creativity Explored, a Bay Area nonprofit visual arts center where artists with development disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art.

Christy Cooper, Account Executive - Field Sales,

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Christy has been a committed member of the all volunteer Discover Council at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. As a member of this committee a three-year commitment is required. In the past two years she been a part of the three yearly fundraising activities and co-chairing the big gala in May. Spending approximately 20 hours a week (over 300 hours), and diligently tracking her hours in Volunteerforce to execute this event, her efforts paid off in the $750,000 raised each year. Additionally, she has championed two Community Action Team grants over the past two years from the Foundation for the annual Goblin Jamboree which engaged 14 salesforce.com volunteers. This event helps raise funds for underserved youth and schools to visit the museum for free. Additionally, Christy was instrumental in helping the organization implement salesforce in order to manage the 500 plus volunteers for the event.

Michelle Balbi, Executive Assistant - Corporate Sales

San Mateo, Califorina [top]

Michelle Balbi has been awarded the volunteer of the year at Salesforce.com for her outstanding dedication to the community and the Foundation.  She has been an invaluable resource in building the community and volunteering culture in the San Mateo office. From her first day at Salesfore.com, Michelle has been passionate about volunteering.  She has championed two Community Action Team grants in order to recruit, rally, and inspire the corporate sales teams to get involved!  The first was for two teams to carve pumpkins with over a 150 youth from the Mid-Peninsula Boys and Girls Club in San Mateo.  The second grant she championed was for creating a library at the Bayshore Child Care Services through the Bring Me A Book Foundation. Over 15 employees participated to create this library adding over 30 new hardbound books to their reading list.

Besides championing some amazing Community Action Team grants, Michelle has participated in and supported the local blood drives.  She has also volunteered her time at Belmont Oaks Academy with their Art in Action program exposing the elementary school students to the joys of art. 

During the holidays Michelle set-up and volunteered at the Toy Sort at the Samaritan House in San Mateo as well as  worked with the Mid-Peninsula Boys and Girls Club and their Giving Tree Program ensuring that over 50 youth received gifts during the holiday season.

Varun Gupta, SMTS - Quality Assurance

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Varun Gupta has been awarded the Volunteer of the Year award for his amazing volunteer work in the local community! He has been an outstanding champion in the rebuilding of Volunteerforce into a native salesforce.com application that enables our customers, partners, and nonprofits to manage their volunteer activities for free.  Varun volunteered as the scrum master, a new role for him, and executed his role with amazing proficiency. He provided consistent feedback and brilliantly managed a diverse salesforce.com team and kept them on task.  He has been a tireless and committed leader in the improvement of Volunteerforce and its release this month. A comment from Mary Scotton, the product manager for Volunteerforce illustrates his contribution, "I really think that without Varun, the project would have failed."

Varun also has demonstrated his passion for technology and youth development.  Last year he championed a Technology for Youth Development grant for Streetside Stories.  This grant provided over 60 seventh graders at Martin Luther King Middle School the opportunity to create their own autobiographical digital story, attend a workshop, and learn how to use new technology.  He has also been working diligently with them to adopt the salesforce.com application.  In addition, Varun has promoted their cause by sponsoring a table at Streetside’s annual breakfast, “Raising Voices.”  He has personally donated to their Tech Tales program to purchase much needed digital equipment.  Streetside has so appreciated his hard work that he has been invited to join their Board.  

David Brooks, Vice President, Platform Product Management

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

David is a familiar face around the Foundation. His contributions are as diverse as his passions, which range from Zumba dancing to product development. He has been a Product Council member for two years and, in that capacity, is now supporting Bay Area Video Coalition’s implementation.  He is the Executive Sponsor of the Foundation’s Volunteerforce initiative, a development initiative designed to meet companies and nonprofits growing need to track, organize and manage volunteer events and opportunities. His leadership on the Volunteerforce projects has included recruiting teams, meeting with existing partners, working to develop new partnerships, and working to architect a solution to the stated needs. He has served as the construction lead for the Dreamforce event for two years running, building benches and planter boxes.  He has also worked with Rainforest2Reef, a 2007 grantee, lending best practice advice and development expertise. David has demonstrated a selfless commitment to the community; for that, the Foundation thanks him and is happy to award $500 in his name to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Nicole Wyne, Field Marketing Specialist

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Nicole Wyne has been an amazing champion of volunteerism and this year she is being recognized as one of the Volunteers of the Year. 

In 2007 Nicole joined the Time council and has been very active in championing volunteer activities.  This year she created a Marketing Volunteer Campaign to get her whole department engaged in using their volunteer time.  She had over 50 marketing volunteers from San Francisco and San Mateo participate as well as remote and International employees that joined.  Collectively they contributed over 480 hour of service to the community. 

Nicole has been involved in International volunteering program and participated in a Cross Cultural Solution trip to Brazil, teaching in a favella in Salvador in November 2008 as well as one to Peru working with the elderly in 2007.

She has used her extensive knowledge llof the salesforce.com application to manage the volunteer sign-up for the Dreamforce Volunteer event for 2007 and 2008! She has provided tireless energy in ensuring that the templates were properly created, edited, and organized.  When it came to creating a campaign she didn’t miss a beat and executed an amazing process that communicated all the information our customers, partners, and employees would need to volunteer.

Nicole has also devoted many hours to leading and participating in events with the National Parks Service’s Ocean Beach clean-up, Habitat restoration at Alcatraz, serving dinner at Raphael House, participating in the Jean Parker Elementary I’m All Ears reading program and making Gingerbread Houses with their 2nd graders, supporting a Valentine’s Day Auction to benefit www.BayKids.com, assisting BizAcademy students with making their final presentations, serving the homeless at Project Homeless Connect.

Micah Joel, Senior Corporate Sales

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Micah joined salesforce.com in March of 2008 and has been a star volunteer ever since. He demonstrates unending compassion, a deep philanthropic commitment, and a dedication to the Foundation’s 1/1/1 model. His desire to get involved with the Foundation was one of the things that drew Micah to salesforce.com, and he was hooked from the moment he attended the New Hire Foundation event. Micah is an active member of the Product Council and has contributed much of his time and expertise to Bay Area Video Coalition, a 2008 grantee, helping them develop and enhance their use of Salesforce.com. In addition to his work with the Foundation, Micah is a Board Member of the Ray of Light Theatre, and has worked with many other San Francisco arts organizations including the Asian American Theatre Company, Thunderbird Theatre, and Brava for Women in the Arts. He also founded a preview program, which invites nonprofit members to preview screenings of performances through Ray of Light Theatre.  He has participated in a number of events with the Golden Gate National Park service and Larkin Street Youth Services. Micah's next goal is to develop a Salesforce.com template for the performing arts, and to work with the Foundation to broaden the scope of nonprofit resources. The Foundation applauds Micah’s commitment to the community and to supporting the Foundation’s 1/1/1 model, and has donated $500 in his name to The Crucible, a nonprofit dedicated to the arts, industry and collaboration based in Oakland.

Mary Scotton, Product Management Director

San Francisco, Califorina [top]

Mary has been an instrumental product manager for rebuilding Volunteerforce natively on the salesforce.com platform. Her energy, flexibility and leadership to take on this role showed in her ability to recruit, work with, and coach committed developers who were trying out new roles and testing their own skills. She spent numerous hours testing, reading through documentation and helping to strategize the build out of this product as well as collaborating with key people in the company to make this happen for a release in February.

In addition to building a product with code, Mary was a champion of a Community Action Team grant in order to build a playground to provide a safe, accessible play space for children ages 2-5 years old in Oakland. She will be joined by 14 salesforce employees and spouses to get this playground completed in the spring.

Europe, Middle East & Africa

Fergus Gloster, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales

Dublin, Ireland [top]

Fergus Gloster is the co-founder of the EMEA headquarters. Despite having been very busy with transforming the original Irish operation into a multi million business, his attention to social causes has always been very high in his priority list. He found teaching mathematical sciences particular fulfilling, putting his incredibly highly skilled and logic intellect to the service of underserved children. Fergus not only gives much precious time and financial support to children in need but he also likes to deal with those who are mostly challenged by their personal circumstances, proving to be an excellent mentor and inspiring model for them. For the second year in a row, every week he leaves the busy office to go to one of Dublin most underserved areas. The program is City Wise Fast Track and it aims to bring children who fell outside the mainstream education system back to a level where they can pass the Junior and Leaving Certificate. Thanks to his help some of his students managed to pass their exams and some even achieved third level education. Fergus’s been nicknamed ‘Human Calculator’ and he’s popularity in the centre is growing all the time.

In 2008 alone he spent over 200 hours only on the Fast Track program and his support and leadership is highly regarded and much sought after inside salesforce.com as well as within the Foundation.

David Dempsey, Vice President Operations, Customer Adoption

Dublin, Ireland [top]

David Dempsey (third from left) is the co-founder of the EMEA headquarters. His business leadership made salesforce.com EMEA the multi million operation it is today, but what it is perhaps less well-known it’s his commitment with the Wexford Lyons Club.

David joined the club in 2003 as volunteer mainly dedicating his time to St. John’s Ambulance, serving the community and helping the elderly. His support to the Lyons has grown considerably within time and in 2008 David has been elected District Governor for the Lyons Club Ireland. His objectives in fulfilling this new role are simple and down to the point: ‘As District Governor I seek only to promote and strengthen Lionism in Ireland, North and South. Not  for self gain or promotion but in the belief that if we strengthen and grow our membership we can offer even more service and more support to those less  fortunate than ourselves in our local, national and global communities’.

Earlier this year Lions Clubs International was voted as best NGO by the Financial Times. As the world’s largest service organisation it supports 114 million treatments for river blindness, provide more than 7 million cataract surgeries and prevent serious vision loss for more than 27 million people worldwide through their ‘Sight First campaigns’, the latest of which has just concluded with in excess of $200 million raised to continue to fight the major causes of preventable and reversible blindness.

In 2008 alone David spent nearly 200 hours involved with the development of the Lyons’s programs and his support and leadership is highly regarded and much sought after inside salesforce.com as well as within the Foundation.

Chris Rauch, Director, International Training & Certification

London, UK [top]

Chris Rauch (photo: kneeling in middle with white t-shirt) has been a committed supporter of the Salesforcecom Foundation both through his personal contribution as well as helping nonprofits to learn about our application. 

Chris has invested his time in supporting a number of worthy causes - most notably, the Back-Up Trust where he is on the Board of Trustees, acts as a Group Leader on their Winter Course programme as well as providing coaching and training to the Back-Up staff.   As a result of his leadership and through the support of the Salesforce.com Foundation, activities that support the community are now an integral part of his team offsite meetings involving everything from gardening at a school in London to helping out at a Donkey Sanctuary for the day.  In May, Chris led a team of 10 Salesforce people who scaled Mount Snowdon in Wales and raised an impressive £5,500 for the Back-Up Trust.  He has also found time to provide mentoring support as part of a scheme run by his local council to help young people who need guidance to stay on track.

Through his role in the Training & Certification team, Chris has made available over 80 free or donated places on the Salesforce Admin Training courses to nonprofits – this equates to $240K worth of donated course places. Over the past year, Chris clocked up 182 hours (approx 23 days) of community work.

Francesca Donaghy, Senior Application Instructor

London, UK [top]

Francesca Donaghy is a Senior Application Instructor and has been with saleforce.com for 4 years.  During that time she has spent many volunteer hours with a number of organisations.  However the majority of her time has been spent with a school where she  has  been a governor for 16 years.  As a school governor she has many responsibilities which include managing the school finances, HR, ICT, PR in addition to ensuring the school maintains educational standards.  Fran spends her time in school supporting staff and providing ICT training.  As part of the HR team she is responsible for staff recruitment and performance reviews.  She is also manages the Out of Schools clubs along with the headteacher.  The clubs provide child care for the children before and after school.  Fran looks after all the finances, staff performance and training.  The clubs are run independently from the school and are self funding,  any profits are invested back into the club. Last year, Fran introduced salesforce to the clubs and customised the application that now manages all the club registrations, bookings and finances.  The club supervisors are delighted with their new application and they now have more time to spend with the children and need less time on the administration.

Michaela Harradine, TRO Administrator

London, UK [top]

A major Foundation commitment of Michaela's this year has been with St John Ambulance Woodley Cadet division.  St John Ambulance is the leading supplier of first aid support and health and safety training courses in the UK and have an active volunteer base of 43,000; over half of their members are aged under 25 years old. The cadet group she assisted is a large group aged between 10 and 17 years old from varying social and cultural backgrounds.  Guided by youth leaders, Cadets take part in an interactive and full programme for personal development, learning important life skills as well as effective first aid in a fun, challenging and safe environment.   Michaela actively devoted time to the group providing regular help with financial admin, event planning and coordination and training assistant support.   Additionally she took on a project to develop an adapt a salesforce application for the group.   It’s been designed to streamline ongoing cadet activities, track their individual learning and development plans for their success and effectively manage fundraising and donations made to the group.  Money raised through $ for doers, a departmental volunteer award and this foundation award will help the group immensely in order to provide them with the vital learning resources they need to be successful in their learning and development in the coming year.

Additional activities that support the community which Michaela has been involved with this year has been frequent participation on Burnham Beeches conservation days, clearing areas of marshland to restore the native wildlife’s ecosystem, and outings with Landmark charity, one of which was taking a group of young children to Kew Gardens to discover the natural world around them.

Japan

Teruhiro Nakazawa, Director, Customer Success

Tokyo, Japan [top]

This is the second time for Teruhiro Nakazawa to be awarded as a Volunteer of the Year at Salesforce.com! He has a genuine passion towards helping people in need. In November 2008, he took 6-days of volunteering leave to have an operation to transplant his bone marrow to save a boy.  As a head of CSM Team, he also encouraged his team members to actively join in volunteering activities. The average hours for a CSM Team volunteer is 33 hours, the highest in Salesforce.com Japan!

Teru is always open to support nonprofit organizations with his skills. In 2008, his achievements included teaching people with disabilities how to skate for Special Olympics and translating newsletters for Kids Earth Fund. Also, he loves volunteering along with his daughters for charity events such as Walk the World.

Because of his leadership and enthusiasm, everyone at Salesforce.com Japan is happy to recognize Teru as a Volunteer of the Year 2008! Thank you Teru for all your hard and passionate work!

仲澤輝宏さんにとって2度目のVolunteer of the Year受賞です！仲澤さんは、真の情熱をもって助けを必要とする人のために取り組んでいます。2008年11月、仲澤さんは社会貢献休暇をフルに活用し、骨髄移植により一人の少年の生命を救いました。

また、CSMチームを率いる立場として、チームメンバーが積極的にボランティアに参加できる環境をつくりました。CSMチームの2008年の一人当たりの平均ボランティア時間は33時間、日本のオフィスでもっともボランティアに取り組んだチームになりました。

仲澤さんは、自分のスキルを生かして非営利団体の支援も行っています。スペシャルオリンピックスのスケート指導や子供地球基金のニュースレター英訳など、幅広い活躍をしています。お嬢さんとともにチャリティイベントの運営ボランティアを行うこともあります。

仲澤さんのリーダーシップと熱意に社内の多くの同僚が心を打たれました。2008年のVolunteer of the Year受賞、おめでとうございます！

Ryoko Asao, Trainer

Tokyo, Japan [top]

Ryoko Asao is a core member of 'Sapporo Challenged' project at Salesforce.com Japan. She made two trips to Sapporo, Hokkaido to deliver salesforce training and teach skills to people with disabilities at a nonprofit 'Sapporo Challenged'. Her continuous endeavor resulted in making a business contract between Salesforce.com Japan and Sapporo Challenged. Since last fall, the Service team has been offering businesses including premium admin work and certified consulting test scoring to Sapporo Challenged.

Not only an active member of the Foundation Council, she is good at rallying her team members to join in volunteering activities such as delivering PC training courses to mentally disabled people. She also loves to have nonprofit application users to her on-site training courses in her daily work.

To thank her for her energy and passion, Ryoko is being recognized as a 2008 Volunteer of the Year!

麻生良子さんは、北海道のNPO法人「札幌チャレンジド」との協働プロジェクトのコアメンバーとして活躍しました。札幌チャレンジドとは自立を目指す身体障がい者のITスキル向上や社会参加を支援するNPO法人です。麻生さんは北海道にある札幌チャレンジドのオフィスを2回訪問してSalesforceの技能・スキルを伝え、そのおかげで、2008年秋にはセールスフォース・ドットコムと札幌チャレンジドの間で業務委託契約が成立、サービス部門の業務を委託できるようになりました。

麻生さんは、個人として社会貢献委員会のメンバーでもあり、また、自らの所属するEducationチームのメンバーを積極的に巻き込んでチームボランティアを成功させています。2008年12月からは知的障害を持つ方々へのPC指導ボランティアをはじめています。また、Educationチームはハンズオントレーニングに非営利団体を無償で招待しており、毎回さまざまな非営利団体のスタッフをあたたかく迎えています。

麻生さんのエネルギーあふれる活躍ぶりにあらためて敬意を表します。2008年のVolunteer of the Year受賞、おめでとうございます！

Asia Pacific

Duncan Pereira, Enterprise Business Rep

Singapore [top]

Duncan is a very active volunteer of the Foundation activities. He has given a total of 100 volunteering hours in 2008, not including the countless times he helped in the preparation work and offering his car as temporary storage and transport vehicle for volunteer events. Duncan also took the lead and contributed towards the success of our inaugural overseas volunteer project in Thailand with his tireless energy, creativity and flexibility with unexpected changes. He does a great 'Hokey-pokey' with the students during our English classes and a budding artist at the wall painting project. Last but not least, he is always rallying and recruiting colleagues and friends to join or support Foundation activities. And doing everything with a great smile at all times!

Mark Ringrose, Account Executive - Field Sales

Sydney, Australia [top]

Mark was nominated the Chairperson and known as a active member on the Australia Employee Council. He is a strong support and a valued advocate for the Foundation especially in all areas of our 1% model. He started the Youth off the Streets Mentoring programme in late 2007 which had 18 employees mentor disadvantaged youths on a monthly basis and to his credit, this project is still going on strong. His perseverance and efforts on engaging and supporting our nonprofit customers such as Redkite, Wayside Chapel and Good Beginnings shows his dedication in our product donation programme; last but not least, his volunteering time exceeds more than 40 hours in 2008. Thank you for being a great example of the Power of Us!