Oracle hires Mark Hurd, former CEO of HP, as co-president just as former Oracle President Charles Phillips resigns.
Oracle
announced Sept. 6 that the database giant has
hired
former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd as co-president reporting to Oracle Chairman
and CEO Larry Ellison.
Oracle
announced that
Hurd
has joined Oracle as president and has been named to Oracle's board of directors.
In his new role, Hurd joins Safra Catz as co-presidents under Ellison.
Charles
Phillips, formerly co-president with Catz, announced his resignation from
the company on Sept. 6. Phillips' departure means Oracle's office of the
president will remain a duopoly rather than a triumvirate.
Hurd
resigned from HP in August amid a scandal around an investigation by HP's
board relating to a sexual harassment allegation and reports of fudged expense
reports.
Following
Hurd's departure from HP,
Ellison, a personal friend of Hurd, criticized the HP board, calling its move
"the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired
Steve Jobs many years ago."
In
welcoming Hurd aboard at Oracle, Ellison, in a statement, said, "Mark did
a brilliant job at HP, and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle. There is no
executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle's
future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for
the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when
Teradata was a part of NCR."
"Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," added Catz,
also in a statement. "I look forward to working with him for years to
come. As Oracle continues to grow, we need people experienced in operating a
$100 billion business."
And in his first move as an Oracle executive, Hurd wasted no time attacking IBM.
IBM stood as HP's biggest competitor and is
Oracle's closest rival as well.
"I believe Oracle's strategy of combining software with hardware will
enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise
servers and storage," Hurd said in a statement. "Exadata is just the
beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later
this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I'm excited to be a part of the most innovative
technology team in the IT industry."
The shuffling of Hurd and Phillips in and out of the same position is ironic
in that both men have been tainted by setbacks related to personal
relationships with women other than their wives. In January,
Phillips
acknowledged having a long-term affair with a woman named YaVaughnie
Wilkins after billboards began appearing giving details about the affair.
Phillips resigned from his position as Oracle president and as a member of
the company's board of directors.
"Charles has evolved our field culture toward a more customer-centric
organization and improved our top line consistency through a period of
tremendous change and growth," Ellison said in a statement. "When
Charles approached me last December and expressed his desire to transition out
of the company, I asked him to stay on through the Sun integration, which has
gone well. We will miss his talent and leadership, but I respect his decision."
In his own statement, Phillips said: "I want to thank Larry Ellison and
the Oracle Board of Directors for the tremendous opportunity to be a part of an
important and winning team for the last 29 quarters. It has been an honor to
work with them, Safra Catz and the thousands of Oracle employees around the
world who are committed to delivering high-quality products and services to
customers, and to be a part of one of the most innovative companies on the
planet."
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