Mark Hurd

A Rare Glimpse Inside The Life And Mind Of Oracle CEO Mark Hurd

Mark Hurd is one of the more interesting characters in the high-tech world of celebrity CEOs. Closed and private, while also being open, gregarious, opinionated, and always willing to crack a joke, all in a thick East Coast accident. Mark Hurd grew up in New York City and his family moved to Miami Florida when he was in high school.

He holds most of his cards close to the vest, but he was willing to share the following with Business Insider: His father was a financial services professional, providing well for the family. He has been married to his wife, Paula Hurd, for close to twenty-five years and their family consists of the two of them and two daughters. He does donate to charity, and is happy to discuss his support of Baylor University, his alma mater, by means of contributing to their tennis program. Baylor named their college tennis center after him. He often makes analogies between tennis and business.

In September, Hurd became the CEO of Oracle, along with Safra Catz, whom Oracle's Hurd he has admired as a leader and a person. As co-CEO’s, they are filling the role that Larry Ellison stepped down from. Ellison proceeded to assume the role of Chief Technology Officer, and became executive chairman of the board.

Initially, Hurd’s plans after college had been to continue the momentum he had built on a Baylor tennis scholarship and propel into a full time professional tennis player. Realizing that his skills were not developed enough to compete on a professional level, and having a deeply ingrained love for business, he joined NCR in 1980 as a salesman, and by 2003 Hurd had elevated himself to CEO. After a 25 year career at NCR, he left for HP to replace its recently fired CEO Carly Fiorina.

Mark was courted by HP in 2005 because of his leadership skills, particularly around cost management. This comes naturally to him, being called a “human calculator” and being gifted with a strong memory recall. This skill serves him well both personally and in business.

Hurd led HP for five years, leaving HP for Oracle in 2010. Mark Hurd and Larry Ellison had known one another for years from the business deals made between HP and Oracle. When Mark became available, Larry took the opportunity to bring him into Oracle’s fold.

Since joining Oracle, Mark Hurd has pushed the software giant onto center stage in the cloud computing platform and built a sales force that acts as direct liaisons for all of the company offerings to clients new and old.