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Former Oracle president Charles Phillips has been named CEO of Infor, a maker of business software for midmarket companies.
Phillips, who stepped down as president of Oracle in September and was promptly replaced by ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd, will also serve on the Infor board of directors.
The board of directors of Infor, the leading provider of business applications to midsize companies, today announced that it has named Charles Phillips as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.
Meanwhile, Jim Schaper, Infor’s current chairman and CEO, will remain chairman of the company and continue to play a critical role in the company’s strategic development, Infor said in a press release. Schaper also will serve as a senior operating partner at Golden Gate Capital, Infor’s primary shareholder.
“Charles Phillips is a proven executive who brings Infor the diverse skill set, direct industry experience, and track record of performance necessary to lead the company to continued growth,” Schaper said in a statement. “He is a true visionary in the technology industry and has a unique perspective drawn from his experience at one of our leading industry peers, in addition to his years on Wall Street.”
Phillips has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the software industry, most recently as president and director of Oracle. At Oracle, Phillips led the company’s field organization and oversaw revenue growth of nearly 300 percent during his seven-year tenure at the firm. He also played a key role in Oracle’s successful acquisition strategy, including specific transactions such as BEA Systems, Hyperion Solutions and Siebel Systems.
“Infor has quietly built the third-largest enterprise applications company in the world, with 59 percent compound annual revenue growth over the last seven years, higher margins than eight of the top 10 application companies, and a track record of leading innovation,” Phillips said in a statement “With over 70,000 customers in 125 countries, including divisions of large corporations, Infor is poised for growth as the next generation platform ships in January. The company’s laser focus on understanding and automating complex business processes, along with its commitment to constant innovation, has served customers well. I am eager to lead this proven team of over 8,000 employees through its next phase of growth. In a consolidating industry, Infor has proven acquisition expertise, having successfully integrated over 70 companies.”
David Dominik, managing director of Golden Gate Capital, said, “Jim Schaper has been instrumental in growing Infor to a global company with nearly $2 billion in annual revenues today. We welcome Charles’ tremendous management experience at a leading public global technology company and look forward to supporting him as Infor accelerates its growth initiatives and unveils new products and services.”
Infor officials said Phillips joins Infor at a key inflection point in the company’s trajectory, with the next generation of applications shipping in January. Infor ION will provide common workflow, business process monitoring and management across Infor applications, whether on premises or in the cloud. In addition, the company will ship its applications with a common user interface, portal, business intelligence tools and collaboration technologies to incorporate services from all of its major product lines.
Prior to joining Oracle, Phillips was a managing director at Morgan Stanley, covering the software sector. He also served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps before starting his Wall Street career.
