Benefactor Marc Benioff hails Straub expansion as a ‘new beginning’

May 17—1/3

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Kahu Kordell Kekoa, left; Dr. Elna Masuda, vascular surgeon Straub Benioff; Dr. Todd Miller, chief of staff to Straub Benioff; Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce; Ray Vara, president and CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health; Lynne Benioff; and Dr. John Mickey, Straub Benioff’s internal medicine physician, attended Thursday’s ceremony.

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Above, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff gave an interview before the Straub Benioff Medical Center groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.

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Participants raised their hands during the blessing of the event.

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Abundant rain fell on Thursday morning during the opening ceremony of the new Straub

Benioff Medical Center on South King Street.

The ceremony was considered a blessing by state and health officials who attended the ceremony, held under a large tent at the construction site, which will become a new parking lot with 1,600 tents.

With the release of a law, they celebrated the beginning of the multi-year

recognized philanthropists Marc and Lynne Benioff for their $100 million donation.

“Today is a new beginning for healthcare in Hawaii,” Benioff said. “We came here together as partners, as a community, and that’s the spirit that has always drawn me to Hawaii. It’s our aloha spirit in action.”

When he first set foot in Hawaii 50 years ago, he said, it was the aloha spirit that he fell in love with, along with the people and the idea of ​​ohana. He and his wife Lynne have lived on the island of Hawaii for many years, where they raise their family.

The donation is considered the largest donation to Hawaii Pacific Health, which operates Straub, and along with the $50 million donation to Hilo Benioff Medical Center, is considered a

of the biggest single in Hawaiian history.

Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, a San Francisco-based software company, recognized and thanked the healthcare workers under the tent, including emergency medical technicians, doctors, nurses and others who are on the line every day.

During the horrors of the August 8 wildfires on Maui, the Straub Burn Unit, the only one in the state, was ready to act immediately,

he noticed. Nine patients were treated, the largest number of burn patients in a single event in its history.

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“We witnessed this firsthand during the horrors of the wildfires on Maui last year,” he said. “This has deeply affected us all, and we have all seen the extraordinary work of so many of you here in the audience.”

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Hilo Benioff Medical Center also honored the Benioffs last month for their donation, which will help fund the ICU expansion along with other improvements.

During that ceremony, Benioff shared his memory of how friend and cultural advisor Daniel Akaka Jr. suffered a stroke in 2023 during a health summit. He remembers the countless phone calls and the stress of a seven-hour wait in the emergency room, knowing Akaka needed to get to Oahu.

What was missing at the time was an ambulance

helicopter to transport him to a neurological ICU on Oahu, but none were yet available, part of the challenges of health care on neighboring islands.

Through a partnership with the Sayre Foundation, the Benioffs have since

donated funds for new fire trucks, a rescue boat and two state-of-the-art medical helicopters.

“We got a lot of looks

opening experiences”,

Benioff told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “That’s why it’s so important to us to invest in the health of Hawaii residents and also take advantage of all of our resources.”

Benioff said an important initiative of his donations is linking Hilo Medical Center

to HPH and UCSF Health, who will work closely to provide specialized care to Hawaii

patients.

More than 500 patients travel from Hawaii to California each year for specialized care. UCSF worked with HPH to coordinate care for these patients and will

now extend that reach to Hilo Medical Center.

Shelby Decosta, president of the UCSF Health Care Network, will oversee this collaboration.

She was born in Waimanalo and remembers when her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her mother received most of her primary care at Straub, but flew to UCSF twice a year to receive specialized care now available in Hawaii.

The Benioffs since 2005 have pledged more than $289 million to UCSF, including $200 million to support Benioff Children’s

Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland.

“We have created an incredible partnership between great institutions,” said Benioff.

Straub’s redevelopment project has been a

A 20-year effort, according to Ray Vara, president and CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health.

Benioff and Vara are longtime friends, but it was Benioff who suggested over breakfast one morning that he help with the project.

“I am deeply grateful for this gift,” said Vara. “I am even more excited about what this gift will do to accelerate the work we are collectively doing to change the way Hawaii looks today and in the future.”

Benioff said philanthropy has always been important to him, both personally and for his company. It incorporates the concept of ohana into the Salesforce philosophy.

Public health is a top priority of his philanthropy, along with public education, public parks and ocean health.

He also supported

the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project, a nonprofit that brings dive teams to the northwest islands to remove tens of thousands of pounds of marine debris every year.

Benioff also said he wants to help Maui recover from wildfires, which he expects will take years. He recently donated $1 million to the West Maui Improvement Foundation to help build a new fire station in Olawalu.

Gov. Josh Green called the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Straub a “sacred cow” moment.

“For the entire state, this is absolutely true: You will be saving thousands and thousands of lives because of this gift,” he told the Benioffs. “We will never forget this. We will honor you appropriately, but this is our heart goes out to you for doing this for the people of Hawaii.”

The parking building is part of the first phase of Straub’s redevelopment into a “healthcare campus of the future.” When completed, the new campus is expected to be almost triple the size of the current one.