When Amy Weaver ’89 was offered the role of chief financial officer and president of Salesforce in 2020, her first reaction was shock. “I immediately thought it was ridiculous,” she says. She knew there would be a lot to learn, and she knew she would be catapulted into the public eye as a leader of the leading customer relationship management software and application company. She already knew Salesforce well: She joined it in 2013 as senior vice president and general counsel, was promoted to president in 2017 and chief legal officer in 2020. She built its global legal and corporate affairs organizations. Still, it was unheard of for a Fortune 500 CLO to transition from that role to CFO and president.

“I thought of all the times I’ve mentored young women in their careers,” she says. “I thought, what would I say to them if I told them I’d turned down the most extraordinary opportunity because I was afraid?”

Her first year was a blur, she says, but she quickly began to hone the skills she felt were most important to success: working with Wall Street and investors, and getting comfortable with earnings calls. “I promised myself I would never be afraid to ask questions, I was never going to pretend that I was a CPA or an accountant, so I could constantly be learning,” she says.

Weaver became one of only about 65 female CFOs of major companies. She focused on keeping Salesforce efficient while looking out for its future and growth investments. In fiscal year 2024, Salesforce boasted revenue of $34.9 billion, up 11% year over year. She also helped elevate it 50 spots in the Fortune 500 to No. 137 and led the company’s investments in artificial intelligence integration across all of its products. And she gained immense respect from the Wall Street community, driving alignment across Salesforce’s leadership team to achieve shareholder outcomes that some investors felt were unachievable.

Weaver is known as a leader who leans into kindness. That’s not a word often thrown around to describe Fortune 500 companies or Wall Street, but it is core to who Weaver is. “It’s one of the most basic things we can do as leaders,” she says. “We need to insist on better behavior, kindness, and civility.” The person who “comes in with a lot of swagger” may get established more quickly, she says, but the person who earns the trust of the room will have more staying power.

Weaver recalls a COO who asked her for a reference for a job applicant. He wondered if the candidate was too nice for the job. “I wanted to pound my head against a wall,” Weaver says. “People will mistake niceness or kindness for weakness. That’s absolutely the wrong thing.” Her kindness, in Weaver’s mind, was exactly what had made the candidate successful.

Weaver has been outspoken on women’s rights at home and globally as sponsor of the Salesforce Women’s Network and part of the UN Women’s Generation Equality campaign. A few years ago, she hosted a dinner for women, all leaders in their fields, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They all talked about the challenge of getting their voices heard, a moment that made Weaver feel lucky to have had four years at Wellesley. “I just wish it for every woman, that they could have that experience,” she says.

Wellesley, Weaver says, showed her the power of having a strong network of women backing her at every step of her career. “When I talk to people, especially young women, I remind them that at Wellesley, you’re not making a four-year decision, you’re making a lifetime decision about what network you want to be part of,” she says. “This incredible, powerful group of women who will have your back your entire life. I’ve found that so powerful.”

After Wellesley, Weaver followed in the footsteps of her father, grandfather, and most of her extended family and became a lawyer. She graduated from Harvard Law School, clerked for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, then moved to Hong Kong to work for a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council as part of the Luce Scholars Program. She stayed in Hong Kong as she entered private practice—an experience she found challenging, but one that also gave her enormous confidence. She went on to become executive vice president and senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Expedia and general counsel of Univar Solutions before joining Salesforce.

Among her many accolades, Weaver has received the Anti-Defamation League’s 2019 Distinguished Jurisprudence Award and an Award for Professional Excellence by Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, and she was named to the Financial Times’ Global GC 25 List and as one of Business Enquirer’s Top 10 Global CFOs.

Throughout her career, she says, she has pursued challenging opportunities even though they never seemed to come at what she considered “a good time.” “If you keep waiting for the stars to align, you will stay exactly where you are for the rest of your life,” she says. When she got the call to join Salesforce in 2013, for example, she had three boys in school and wasn’t looking to move her family from Seattle to San Francisco. But they convinced her to interview, and she was impressed by how values-based they were.

She shares a quote from civil rights activist and minister William Sloane Coffin that she first heard 20 years ago. “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.”

It’s advice that has continued to remain relevant in her life. In August 2024, after reporting robust second-quarter results, Weaver announced that she would step down from the CFO role once a successor was in place. She said after more than a decade with Salesforce, she was eager to challenge herself with new adventures.

“You’re going to have to take the jump and be confident those wings are going to come,” she says.