Safra Catz

Safra Catz was born in Holon, Israel, in December 1961. She moved to the United States with her family during childhood and later attended Brookline High School in Massachusetts.⁠[1]

Catz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1983 and earned a J.D. from Penn Law in 1986. Her business and legal training preceded a career spanning investment banking and corporate acquisitions.⁠[2]

After law school, Catz joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in investment banking. She became a senior vice president in 1994 and managing director in 1997 before moving into corporate management.⁠[3]

Catz joined Oracle as senior vice president in April 1999 and became executive vice president that October, moving from financial advisory work into the operations of a software company.⁠[4]

Catz joined Oracle’s board in 2001 and became president in January 2004. She also served as chief financial officer during 2005–2008 and 2011–2014, combining operational and financial responsibilities.⁠[5]

After an approximately 18-month contest, Oracle signed a roughly $10.3 billion merger agreement with PeopleSoft. Catz helped drive the acquisition, including negotiations and antitrust litigation, in a defining transaction for Oracle’s acquisition strategy.⁠[1]

Catz joined HSBC Holdings’ board in 2008 and served until 2015. In a Penn Law talk that year, she discussed centralizing Oracle’s global operations and the extended negotiations surrounding the PeopleSoft acquisition.⁠[4][2]

Oracle appointed Catz and Mark Hurd as CEOs while Larry Ellison became executive chairman and chief technology officer. Catz oversaw manufacturing, finance and legal functions; Hurd oversaw sales, services and industry units; engineering continued to report to Ellison.⁠[6]

Disney announced Catz and Francis deSouza as new directors in December 2017, with their appointments effective February 1, 2018. Catz consequently added a major media and entertainment board role to her Oracle responsibilities.⁠[4]

In September 2019, Hurd took medical leave, and Oracle assigned his responsibilities to Catz and Ellison. After Hurd died on October 18, Catz continued as the company’s sole CEO.⁠[7][8][3]

Oracle published Catz’s CloudWorld 2022 keynote conversation on business uses of cloud and data. Participants represented NVIDIA, Deutsche Bank, Grupo Bimbo, Johnson Controls, Melissa & Doug and Oracle Red Bull Racing. The published description covers data value, IT costs and digital-service transformation.⁠[9]

Disney announced Catz’s departure after approximately six years on its board, reducing the number of directors from 12 to 11.⁠[10]

In a post on her personal X account, Catz thanked President Trump and the U.S. General Services Administration for working with Oracle, describing the agreement as supporting government use of cloud computing and AI.⁠[11]

Oracle promoted Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to CEO roles and appointed Catz executive vice chair of its board. The company said she would continue working with Ellison on strategic direction, ending her CEO tenure that began in 2014.⁠[12]

The White House named Catz among the initial members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which advises the president on science, technology, innovation and emerging technologies.⁠[13]

Skydance’s announced board included Catz as a continuing director.⁠[14]

Catz is a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has served on the Oracle Education Foundation’s board since 2000 and as chair since 2004. She and Gal Tirosh also pledged $1 million to Penn Law for an endowed fund supporting cooperation with the Hebrew University.⁠[15][16]

Oracle: Official website: [oracle.com](https://www.oracle.com/ (opens in a new window)). Catz is executive vice chair of its board.⁠[15]

Personal X account: [@SafraCatz](https://x.com/SafraCatz (opens in a new window)), carrying her public comments on Oracle’s business.⁠[17]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: [Oracle’s official channel](https://www.youtube.com/@Oracle (opens in a new window)), including Catz’s CloudWorld keynotes and conversations.⁠[9]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: [Oracle’s institutional page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/oracle/ (opens in a new window)), publishing company news including Catz’s customer engagements. This page and the YouTube channel above belong to Oracle.⁠[18][15]