Safra Ada Catz ( he, צפרא עדה כץ; born December 1, 1961) is an American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and

chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and fina ...

(CFO), reporting to founder

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...

. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that

Mark Hurd Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation. He had previously served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, a ...

and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.

Early life

Catz was born in

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa ...

, Israel, to Jewish parents. Her father was an immigrant from Romania. She moved from Israel to

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Allston, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, and ...

at the age of six. Catz graduated from

Brookline High School Brookline High School is a four-year public high school in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. It is a part of Public Schools of Brookline. The Headmaster is Anthony Meyer who holds a Master of Education in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard ...

. She earned a bachelor's degree from the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

in 1983 and a J.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

in 1986.

Career

Catz was a banker at

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; finan ...

, serving as a managing director from February 1997 to March 1999 and a senior vice president from January 1994 to February 1997 and previously held various investment banking positions since 1986. In 1999, Catz joined Oracle as senior vice president. She has been a non-executive director of Oracle subsidiary

Hyperion Solutions Hyperion Solutions Corporation was a software company located in Santa Clara, California, which was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2007. Many of its products were targeted at the business intelligence (BI) and business performance manageme ...

since April 2007. She has been a member of the executive council of TechNet since March 2013. She was a director of PeopleSoft Inc since December 2004 and Stellent Inc. since December 2006. Catz joined Oracle Corporation in April 1999.Oracle Co-President Safra Catz Adds CFO Duties as Jeff Epstein Leaves
an April 25, 2011, article from allthingsd.com Catz became a member of the company's

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit orga ...

in October 2001 and president in early 2004. She is credited for having driven Oracle's 2005 efforts to acquire software rival

PeopleSoft PeopleSoft, Inc. is a company that provides human resource management systems (HRMS), Financial Management Solutions (FMS), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise performance management (EPM) software ...

in a $10.3 billion takeover.Safra Catz
from the ''Forbes'' 2005 list of The Most Powerful Women. Catz is also the company's CFO, serving temporarily in that role from November 2005 to September 2008, and from April 2011 to the present.

joined her as co-president in 2010. In December 2019, Oracle stated that Catz would be the sole CEO after Hurd's death. In 2009 she was ranked by ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

'' as the 12th most powerful woman in business. In 2009 she was ranked by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' as the 16th most powerful businesswoman. In 2014, she was ranked 24th. According to an Equilar analysis published by ''Fortune'', she was in 2011 the highest-paid woman among

Fortune 1000 The Fortune 1000 are the 1,000 largest American companies ranked by revenues, as compiled by the American business magazine '' Fortune''. It only includes companies which are incorporated or authorized to do business in the United States, and fo ...

companies, receiving an estimated US$51,695,742 in total remuneration. Catz is a lecturer in accounting at the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

. Catz was a director of

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...

from 2008 to 2015. After the election of Donald Trump, Catz was one of several high-profile CEOs, including

Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Cook previously served as the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs ...

Sheryl Sandberg Sheryl Kara Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, billionaire, and philanthropist. Sandberg served as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is al ...

and

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former presi ...

, invited to talk with the then president-elect about potentially taking up a position in the incoming administration. According to Bloomberg, she was considered for the post of U.S. Trade Representative or Director of National Intelligence. Catz is the highest paid female CEO of any U.S. company as of April 2017, earning $40.9 million after a 23% drop in her total compensation relative to 2016. Catz was elected to the board of directors of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

in December 2017, effective February 2018. In March 2021 Catz garnered attention for her stock trading, for acquiring 2.25 million shares through the conversion of derivatives, before selling them on the open market at roughly double the price.

Political involvement

During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Catz donated to the campaign of

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the ...

. She later served on President Trump's transition team, and media outlets frequently mentioned her as a potential official in the Trump administration. During the 2018 election cycle, Catz donated over $150,000 to Republican-aligned groups and individuals, including Congressman

Devin Nunes Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who is chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Before resigning from the House of Representatives and joining TMTG, Nunes was ...

. Catz donated $125,000 to

Donald Trump's Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...

re-election campaign in May 2020.

Personal life

Catz is married to Gal Tirosh and they have two sons.

References

External links

Official biographyTopics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catz, Safra Ada 1961 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies American chief financial officers American computer businesspeople American corporate directors American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American technology chief executives American women bankers American bankers American women chief executives Brookline High School alumni Businesspeople from Massachusetts Directors of The Walt Disney Company HSBC people Israeli women chief executive officers Israeli emigrants to the United States Israeli Jews Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Living people Oracle employees People from Brookline, Massachusetts People from Holon Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Women chief financial officers 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesswomen