Oracle appoints not one, but two, co-CEOs as Safra Catz leaves top job

Oracle says Safra Catz will leave her role as CEO, but stays as EVC on the Board
Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia appointed as co-CEOs
Oracle is set for “hyper-growth” as raft of new deals approaches

Oracle has appointed two new co-CEOs after the cloud giant confirmed the departure of former leader Safra Catz.

Ex-Presidents Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia will take over as the new heads of the company, which looks set to profit from a host of major new deals.

“A few years ago, Clay and Mike committed Oracle’s Infrastructure and Applications businesses to AI – it’s paying off,” Board Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison noted. “They are both proven leaders, and I am looking forward to spending the coming years working side-by-side with them.”

Safra Catz makes way for two co-CEOs

Catz will not be leaving Oracle, and will move over to the Board of Directors as Executive Vice Chair after a decade serving as CEO, saying that now the right moment to hand leadership into the next generation.

As part of the shakeup, Oracle confirmed a few other role changes, including Mark Hura’s appointment as President for Global Field Operations and Doug Kehring’s promotion to Principal Financial Officer.

Ellison served as Oracle’s CEO from 1977 until Catz’s appointment in 2014.

Oracle closed the 2014 calendar year with a share price of $38.19, but prices have climbed to $328.15 today under Catz’s leadership.

“Our combined strengths in AI, cloud infrastructure, horizontal applications and industry applications, will enable Oracle to deliver the latest AI capabilities to our customers,” Magouyrk and Sicilia said in a joint statement, alluding to “hyper-growth” and further business opportunities in the future.

Joining Oracle in 2014 from AWS as a Software Development Engineer, Magouyrk was responsible for OCI Gen2. Sicilia moved over to Oracle when the company acquired Primavera Systems in 2008, leading the development of AI-powered applications across healthcare, banking, communications, hospitality, retail and more.

Oracle recently announced a 12% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to $14.9 billion and a series of “multibillion-dollar customers” set to come on board over the next few months.