Oracle opts for the co-CEO model, which will be implemented by Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia. Safra Catz, who has been the sole CEO in recent years, will be appointed Executive Vice Chair.
Oracle is fully committed to AI with a major leadership change, according to the announcement. “Clay and Mike committed Oracle’s Infrastructure and Applications businesses to AI—it’s paying off,” said CTO and founder Larry Ellison. The duo aims to develop comprehensive industrial AI application suites on Oracle’s Database and Cloud Infrastructure.
“We are excited to lead Oracle into the AI era, where technological innovation leads to extraordinary business opportunity and hyper-growth,” Magouyrk and Sicilia said in a joint statement.
Complementary expertise
Mike Sicilia brought expertise in vertical applications and applied AI. He joined Oracle through the acquisition of Primavera Systems. His teams pioneered the generation of intent-based applications to replace traditional coding. They developed AI agents for industries such as healthcare, banking, and retail.
Clay Magouyrk, who joined from Amazon Web Services in 2014, led Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to become a platform for AI training and inference. “Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is playing a major part in that effort,” Ellison emphasized. The Gen2 OCI architecture supports both large-scale data centers and gigawatt AI training facilities.
Tip: Oracle, Salesforce and SAP prove that using co-CEO’s does not work
Catz hands over the baton
Safra Catz, who has been CEO since 2014, becomes Executive Vice Chair. Catz initially started in a co-CEO model, but that came to an end with the passing of Mark Hurd in 2019. Catz led Oracle’s transformation into a hyperscale cloud provider. “Oracle is recognized as the cloud of choice for both AI training and inferencing. I’m very proud of that,” says Catz.
“At this time of strength is the right moment to pass the CEO role to the next generation of capable executives,” she adds. Ellison indicates that he will continue to work with Catz: “In her role as Vice Chair, Safra and I will be able to continue our 26-year partnership.”
The appointment of the CEO duo is part of a larger restructuring. Mark Hura, Executive Vice President Oracle North America Sales, will become President Global Field Operations. Doug Kehring, current Executive Vice President Operations, will rise to Principal Financial Officer.
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