10 Salesforce Influencers You Should Be Following in 2022

Jenna Trott

5 min read | July 28, 2022

It was an unseasonably cool day in San Francisco when Marc Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999. Benioff started with a vision and created a movement. What first began as a small internet company for sales automation quickly amassed more than 5,740 customers and 70,000 users across 107 countries just 3 short years after its inception.Today, more than 150,000 customers use Salesforce globally and it continues to rank as the world’s #1 CRM for the ninth consecutive year. 

It is indisputable the many benefits Salesforce provides for its customers, among which are big names in the industry like American Express, Spotify, and L’Oréal Americas, to name a few. But the world of Salesforce would not be complete without the many people that stand behind the company. From the employees, to Trailblazers, MVPs and everyone in between, there are scores of people in the Salesforce community who are dedicated to helping others succeed and providing innovative perspectives on the future of tech. 

Today, we want to recognize ten Salesforce professionals who contribute their ideas and are making a huge impact in the Salesforce ecosystem that you should be following in 2022.

So without further ado, here are ten of the most influential people in Salesforce (in no particular order!) 

1.Ben McCarthy AKA Salesforce Ben 

If you’ve ever found yourself solution-searching on McCarthy’s blog, Salesforce Ben, then you know how extensive his knowledge of the platform is. Founded in 2014, Salesforce Ben was created as a space to help professionals maximize Salesforce’s seemingly limitless capabilities. Since then, it has grown to be one of the most popular and highly regarded Salesforce resource blogs in the world, with a community of 400 writers sharing their expertise on administration, development, certifications and careers. In addition to blogs, certification guides, practice tests and courses, Ben also co-hosts “FlowFest,” a live-streamed, hack-a-thon style, 50 minute competition where participants compete against other Trailblazers from across the world for prizes! (Psst! There’s one coming up next month, click here for more info!). 

“I had a vision to create a more community focused blog where all types of Salesforce professionals could write to share their thoughts. It’s been an amazing journey and I can’t wait to continue it in the future.”

– Ben McCarthy 

 LinkedIn

2. Nana Gregg

Apart from “Nana,” she’s got many other titles: Speaker, Blogger, Solutions Architect and Salesforce Lightning Champion…just to name a few. Beyond that, Nana is a 5x Salesforce MVP, a Salesforce Hall of Famer, has 7 Salesforce certifications, 6 superbadges and is definitely someone you’ll want to keep your eyes on in 2022. Nana acts as a critical pillar within the Salesforce community, working to help businesses find success with expertly built solutions. In addition to being a keynote speaker at Dreamforce in 2018, Nana acts as a guide and mentor to other “Accidental Admins,” like herself, even pioneering the methodology “EASY” to help Awesome Admins reach their goals.  

“I had so many people lend a hand as I was learning, it just became natural for me to do the same. I think that is the beauty of the [Salesforce] community as a whole.”

– Nana Gregg

LinkedIn

3. Eric Dreshfield

Known affectionately as “The Dresh” or “The Kevin Bacon of the Salesforce Ecosystem,” Eric is a 7x Salesforce MVP, Hall of Famer and an expert on all things Salesforce. In addition to blogging, Eric is also a product evangelist at Mogli and dedicates his time to bridging the gap between technology and the people who rely on it. Eric is also the founder of Midwest Dreamin’, an event he created back in 2011 with the goal of bringing together the best and brightest Salesforce minds to share knowledge and enlighten other Salesforce community members on how to best utilize the platform. Having been a part of the Salesforce community since its early days, Eric is a great person to follow for his expertise. 

“What does it mean to me to be an MVP? It means giving back to the community who helped me get to where I am today by being available and responsive to fellow community members wherever and whenever they cry out for help.”

– Eric Dreshfield

LinkedIn

4. Jessica Murphy 

Jessica Murphy is quite a force of nature within the Salesforce community. With 13 Salesforce certifications, 170 Salesforce badges, and a 4x Salesforce MVP, Jessica works hard to help individuals and organizations to expand skills in areas including, but certainly not limited to: administrator, business analyst, developer, architect, consultant, and more. In addition to founding East First Consulting, a Salesforce consulting and training firm helping nonprofits and small businesses better utilize Salesforce, Jessica has also co-founded 100DaysofTrailhead, an educational consultancy, focused on supporting continuous learning through gamification while providing learning resources, career coaching, and corporate training. Jessica is also passionate about diversity and inclusion and is a member of the planning team for Dreamin’ in Color, a conference geared toward current or aspiring Black Salesforce professionals to discuss how to succeed, overcome obstacles and grow thriving careers and businesses in the Salesforce ecosystem.

“During 100 Days of Code, I saw some amazing things. I saw women go from having developer titles to architect titles – what I wanted to do was make it so that winning could be easy.”     

– Jessica Murphy

LinkedIn

5. Steve Molis

Steve Molis aka “Steve Mo,” has become something of a legend within the Salesforce community, someone even created a hashtag, “#STEVEMOLISISAGOD,” in the Trailblazer Community. With well over 100,000 answers and nearly 10,000 best answers, we’d say it’s a pretty fitting title. More than just the number of responses Steve has given, he also takes great care to answer questions, often walking the asker through the problem step-by-step with images and screenshots to ensure the problem gets solved. Steve is living proof that sharing IS caring, by continually sharing the knowledge he’s earned through many years in and amongst the Salesforce ecosystem. He’s become inspiration to so many #AwesomeAdmins. Oh, and you probably owe him a beer. 

“Whenever I learn something new, whether it’s a formula or a process or something that’s just not in the owner’s manual, I can’t wait to share it with the community.”     

– Steve Molis 

LinkedIn

6. Cheryl Feldman

Cheryl’s story starts back in 2001, when Salesforce was in its infancy. Her journey to Salesforce started in perhaps the most unlikely of places – a hair salon. Cheryl had been working as a hair stylist when she tore her rotator cuff and needed to switch careers. After finding herself in an office setting, she became immersed in the world database entry, inventory reporting, and customer service, and well, the rest was history! Since then, Cheryl has become the Director of Product Management at Salesforce and has a passion for bridging the gap between business processes and technology processes. Cheryl finds inspiration from Salesforce’s ability to empower anyone, regardless of age, gender, race, income, social status or location, to learn their product for free. And now? She’s helping others to do the same. 

“I’m constantly inspired by the Salesforce community and how genuinely everyone cares for each other. It motivates me to push myself harder and to focus on cultivating more talent and bringing more people into this family.”    

– Cheryl Feldman 

LinkedIn

7. Jennifer W. Lee 

When she’s not forging new trailheads, Jennifer W. Lee can be found doing, well, almost anything and everything Salesforce. In addition to being a Salesforce Admin Evangelist, Jennifer has also been a speaker at Dreamforce (2016-2019), TrailheadDX (2018-2019), NYC and Boston Salesforce World Tours, and Midwest Dreamin (2018-2019), among many others! Jennifer previously ran a blog, which in the nearly 6 years it was active, amassed about 990K views and 636K visitors before retiring it to dedicate her time fully to Salesforce Admins. She’s also a founding co-host of Automation Hour as well as a recipient of the Salesforce #AwesomeAdmin Award and the coveted Golden Hoodie. Jennifer frequently makes appearances on Salesforce podcasts, webinars and gives talks sharing her knowledge – she’s certainly someone you want to be following if you’re not already!

“Thank you to all of you who followed my blog, shared my blog posts with others and asked questions about the content. It’s given me much #Trailheart to have you approach me at a conference or send me a message via the Trailblazer community or LinkedIn, to introduce yourself and let me know how a particular blog post or posts have helped you solve an issue you were having.”    

– Jennifer W. Lee

LinkedIn

8. Stacey Whitaker

With over a decade of experience architecting and configuring the Salesforce platform, Stacey has certainly become an expert for all things SFDC. A well-known public speaker and advocate within the Salesforce ecosystem, Stacey also co-founded “Campfire Stories,” a podcast dedicated to trailblazers’ stories including: SME’s, thought leaders, admins, developers, and evangelists in the Salesforce ecosystem discussing their journeys with Trailhead. Stacey is a prolific speaker, appearing at Dreamforce, User Groups, conferences and in YouTube videos, helping others in the Salesforce community find success and sharing knowledge of her own deep expertise in Salesforce Clouds.

“Long before I was a Salesforce MVP I learned from MVPs through their blogs and sessions, I was inspired by their generosity and I was cheered on through one on one encounters at ‘Meet the MVPs’ parties at Dreamforce. It was life changing for me and I wanted to recreate the magic and provide a way for Trailblazers to get acquainted with MVPS in a fun and engaging way.”
Stacey Whitaker

– Stacey Whitaker 

LinkedIn

9. David K. Liu

No list of influential Salesforce people would be complete without David K. Liu! Salesforce began as just a dream for David and that dream quickly turned into a force to be reckoned with. In addition to working as the Lead Salesforce Technical Architect for Google, David has become an important mainstay in the Salesforce ecosystem, having spoken at Dreamforce over TWENTY times! In addition to being the first ever recipient of the Developer Golden Hoodie, David is also the founder of SFDC99, a blog dedicated to helping aspiring developers have a better understanding of coding (and to avoid many of the struggles that he endured when he was just starting out). These courses come highly recommended from many and David has built a reputation for being an important teacher and contributor within the Salesforce world. 

“You know, I still feel like I’ve only just begun the work of ‘passing it on’ to others. There are many ways I can be a better teacher and there are still so many things I don’t know about Salesforce.”    

– David K. Liu 

LinkedIn

10. Ashish Agarwal 

In addition to running a blog hosting a plethora of free content, guides and tutorials, Ashish is a Freelance Salesforce Architect and he certainly has the clout to back up his expertise. With over 29 Salesforce certifications, 12 Superbadges and well over 1,000 badges (I mean come on!!), it makes Ashish a central figure in the Salesforce community and an incredibly valuable source of information. Ashish has extensive experience with the core Salesforce platform as well as their suite of products which allows him to effectively bridge the gap between technology and people, guiding others in a way that is easily digestible and has lasting effects for self-sufficiency. 

“Inspired by Salesforce’s 1-1-1 model, I do believe in Marc Benioff’s ‘doing well and doing good’ philosophy. I am available to help non-profit organizations with their Salesforce implementation pro bono.”    

– Ashish Agarwal  

LinkedIn

And that’s a wrap! There are so, so many incredible and influential people within the Salesforce ecosystem – this list offers only a glimpse. Be sure to tap into the invaluable content that the Salesforce community provides and maybe you’ll see yourself on one of these lists one day!