In recent years Silicon Valley has been called everything from a “cess pool” to irrelevant because of the image of a culture of conflicting interests, back room deals, and even women abuse charges of a top valley firms and high profile individuals.

Marc Benioff wants to change that image.

This week at Salesforce.com Dreamforce conference we saw the emerging theme up close and personal with Marc Benioff with amplification of the theme of generosity and giving back.  At Benioff’s massive event in San Francisco where 140,000 people attended to hear how Salesforce.com will evolve as a company, we saw the usual flair you would expect at a mega conference except for one thing, Marc Benioff.     Benioff’s mood and mojo was very telling.  To paraphrase the headline band for the events party gala, Green Day.. “the senator of California has the floor” and it’s Marc Benioff.

What was unique this year was a clear display and amplification of corporate leadership from Marc Benioff. Marc is quickly becoming senior Silicon Valley CEO and he had the floor spreading his love and goodness to all. Throughout the event Benioff stepped up his game to demonstrate to all of Silicon Valley and the world on how companies should operate. Make a solid growing profit and give back to the community. We saw first hand an executive who is changing the mindset of a new mantra from performance for Wall Street and culture for Silicon Valley. Benioff demonstrated that it’s cool to make lots of money (profit) and do good at the same time.

Marc Benioff is Silicon Valley’s kid who’s all grown up and who’s made good. His siblings in Silicon Valley are either retired, trying to turnaround, or no longer around. He’s the big brother supporting his struggling brothers and sisters of Silicon Valley. We saw Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman in a very rare public appearance in person supporting Marc, Meg Whitman who is doing a solid job keeping HP on task.  Marc is backing Meg and lending a helping hand by showcasing HP.  Then there was a slew of Silicon Valley ecosystem brothers and sisters from NGO supports to startups getting the love. Finally, the grand finale was the much-anticipated Marissa Mayer fireside chat.

What a show it was with Mayer and Benioff.  It didn’t disappoint. Here we had Marc the “big brother” standing with his “little sister” saying “here is a great executive in the making”. Showering Marissa with platitude after platitude, Benioff was over the top with his public glowing endorsement of Marissa.  His message was Marissa is great, give her a chance, and he’s proud of her.  It’s clear Benioff likes Mayer’s style.  Although Mayer did great product work at Google, she was passed over for major operating roles during her time there.  Despite not proving herself at any major organization, it doesn’t matter because she is “gold plated” in Silicon Valley.

Benioff really wanted to show the world what he thinks of Marisa Mayer’s unique management and personal approach to running Yahoo. Stock is up and people are buzzing. Benioff and Mayer fireside chat was great theater. It was a love fest with the big brother showing the world how great his little sister is while sending the subtle message to the world … that “I got your back Marissa”. Same goes for HP and others in Silicon Valley, Benioff has your back.

Some commentary on Twitter compared Benioff’s confidence and showmanship to PT Barnum saying “Greatest Software on Earth” and myself who tweeted “Benioff for President” in context to how he was working the crowd in his keynote.

To Benioff and crew great performance all around. Now keep showing the world it’s possible to work hard, deliver the numbers (profit), have a life, and give back to world.  Many are eager to subscribe to that model of the corporation.

Editors Note: During Day One Benioff keynote the crowd of thought leaders and influencers held an impromtu virtual event at the event called a CrowdChat.   Read the full transcript of the crowdsourced original content which reached over 800k timelines. Line to the crowd commentary and analysis. www.crowdchat.net/df13