Company Updates

Michael Dell and Marc Benioff Face Off in Fitbit Celebrity Challenge

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There’s not much that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and I have in common, but there is one thing — we both lost 30 pounds wearing a Fitbit.

Actually, today I’m down 32 pounds, but more importantly I’m much more active and healthy than I was before the fitness tracker gave me a wakeup call about just how much I was sitting in front of my computer. To help users keep motivated, Fitbit launched challenges last August. I recently competed with several friends in a “Workweek Hustle” challenge and can attest to the fact that it accomplishes that goal.

At the beginning of the year, Fitbit extended the challenges to celebrities, and I’m excited to see that our own Michael Dell is stepping up to face Benioff in Fitbit’s third Celebrity Challenge March 16-20. The challenge is to see which CEO can log the most steps in five days to raise awareness and money for the American Heart Association (AHA). The winner will have $10,000 donated in their name to the AHA from Fitbit.

It’s no secret that both men already had a bit of rivalry going with their fitness efforts. Last year, Benioff noted during a World Economic Forum panel how Dell noticed when a few days passed without any activity on his Fitbit.

“The reason I’m telling this story is so that you can get an idea of where we are going in the world, with everything getting connected,” he said when he brought it up again at the recent Fortune Brainstorm Tech dinner.

“Until now, most of us have made our health and fitness decisions based on what we think we know about ourselves,” said Michael Dell in a Q&A about his participation in the Fitbit Challenge.“Advancements in technology – wearables and otherwise – will eventually take much of the guess work out of healthy living. And we’ll all benefit from it.” 

You can follow the action at www.fitbit.com/celebrity-challenges and on social media through #FitbitForAHA; or you can get involved and add to Michael’s total step count by donating to AHA via www.fitbit.com/celebrity-challenges. Every dollar donated in his name equals 10 additional Challenge steps.

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.