Mark Hurd resurfaces as Oracle president
Mark Hurd, who stunned Silicon Valley exactly one month ago when he resigned from Hewlett-Packard Co. under tabloid news circumstances, resurfaced Monday as a president of Oracle Corp.
Hurd, 53, will report Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive officer and a staunch supporter who sharply criticized HP's board of directors for ousting Hurd.
"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," Ellison said in a press release. "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."
Hurd, who also joins Oracle's board of directors, reportedly replaces co-president Charles Phillips, who is leaving the company.
"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 the release. "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 release also quoted co-President Safra Catz.
"Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," Catz said. "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."
Hurd resigned as HP's chief executive on Aug. 6 in the wake of a sexual harassment claim by an outside contractor, Jodie Fisher, a former R-rated movie actress and reality TV show contestant. The claim was settled privately, but the investigation unearthed payments Hurd made to her that violated the company's code of conduct.
Ellison, however, immediately sprang to Hurd's defense and ignited speculation that Hurd might move on to Oracle. In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison liked Hurd's ouster to the 1986 ouster of Apple Inc.'s board forced out co-founder Steve Jobs.
"The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago," Ellison wrote. "That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=71729
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