[3] Saloner graduated from the University of Witwatersrand, where he earned a bachelor of commerce in 1975 and a master in business administration in 1977.
[1] He emigrated to the United States to avoid doing his military service in the South African Defence Force.
[2] He stepped down in the wake of a lawsuit on allegations of discrimination on the basis of marital status, race and gender filed by Professor James Phills.
Saloner has published research on business networks at start-up technology companies.
[2][3] Some time after, he began a romantic relationship with Deborah H. Gruenfeld, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was dean.