Well the speculation ended this afternoon when Oracle shot out two press releases, one on Charles Phillips resignation as co-president and the other for former HP CEO Mark Hurd's appointment as co-president of Oracle, replacing Phillips. It's not particularly surprising, everyone knew that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Hurd were friends, and that Ellison was very vocal about HP's decision to oust Hurd, and it comes two weeks before Oracle OpenWorld, which will be a great time to introduce customers, employees and partners to Hurd in this new role.
The move makes sense from a strategic perspective in the "new" Oracle post-sun acquisition. Hurd's background in hardware, services, and in selling integrated IT stacks is a great addition to the Oracle executive team at a time when Oracle has repositioned itself to compete more effectively with IBM and HP. I also imagine Hurd is happy to compete head to head with his former employer. Hurd gives the needed depth in areas that were somewhat lacking on the team and his focus on operational excellence and operating detail is a great fit with the Oracle culture. His strengths dovetail well with Safra Catz who continues in her role as the other co-president.
Charles Phillips had a good run at Oracle and deserves credit for making a field operations machine that has continuously put up some impressive numbers while integrating a staggering number of acquisitions including PeopleSoft, Siebel, Hyperion, JD Edwards and Sun. In the press release Ellison said that Phillips has wanted to leave earlier this year but had agreed to stay on through the Sun integration. With the availability of a strong replacement the timing seems right for the switch and three co-presidents is simply one too many. Phillips was a strong front-man for the executive team, I guess we'll have to wait and see how well Hurd takes up that role.
