Getting to Know Safra A. Catz: Oracle CEO, Newest Board Member of The Walt Disney, and Things We Did Not Know

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 05 July 2021, 03:07 am

(Photo : GettlyImages/ Justin Sullivan ) Safra Catz CEO

Things have changed in the tech industry. Before, men were dominating this industry, but as time goes by, women have joined the race.

Talking about women's empowerment, the newest Walt Disney board member Safra A. Catz is an inspiration among career women.

Safra A. Catz is an Israeli-American billionaire banker and technology executive and was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 12th most powerful businesswoman in 2009.

Born on Dec. 1, 1961, Catz was named an executive at Oracle Corporation in 1999, and she became a board member in 2001. In 2011, Catz was named co-president and chief financial officer. In 2014, Safra Catz and Mark Hurd was announced as the new CEOs after former Oracle Corporation CEO Larry Ellison stepped down from the position, according to Business Insider.

Safra A. Catz's Early Life and Career

Catz was born in Holon, Israel. Her Jewish father was an immigrant from Romania. When she was six years old, she moved from Israel to Brookline, Massachusetts.

Catz graduated from Brookline High School, and in 1983, she earned a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School for the University of Pennsylvania. In 1986, Catz went to the University of Pennsylvania Law School and earned a Juris Doctor degree.

Catz worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette right after graduating, and she served as a managing director from 1997 to 1999.

In 1999, Catz joined Oracle Corporation as senior vice president. In 2004, she was a director of PeopleSoft Inc., and in 2006 she was a director of Stellent Inc.

According to Fortune, Catz was the highest-paid woman among Fortune 1000 companies in 2011, receiving $51,695,742 in remuneration.

In 2014, Mark Hurd and Safra Catz were announced as the CEOs of Oracle Corporation, but in 2019 Hurd took a leave of absence, making Catz the sole CEO of the company.

In 2017, Catz was named the highest-paid female CEO of any U.S. company, earning $40.9 million. Catz also became a board director at The Walt Disney Company in 2018, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Also Read: Larry Ellison Oracle CEO no more: Here's why he quit and what he will do now

Political Involvement

During the Republican presidential primaries in 2016, Catz donated to the campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida. She then served on President Donald Trump's transition team after he won the presidency.

During the 2018 election, Catz reportedly donated more than $150,000 to Republican-aligned groups and individuals, including U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes from California. In 2020, she donated $125,000 to President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

Oracle Corporation Controversies

When she was named the CEO of Oracle Corporation, Catz was met with numerous challenges. In 2007, Oracle Corporation filed a lawsuit against SAP after the company noticed thousands of downloads of Oracle software.

SAP eventually admitted that the employees of the company were making illegal downloads of Oracle files, according to Reuters.

In 2010, Catz was forced to go to court after Oracle Corporation sued SAP for software copyrights. A jury in California originally awarded Oracle Corporation $1.3 billion, but the figure was decreased in 2014 after succeeding judicial rulings. SAP ended up paying Oracle Corporation $365.7 million.

In 2016, Oracle Corporation was hit with a data breach orchestrated by the Russian cybercrime group called the Carbanak Gang.

More than 300,000 cash registers sold by Oracle Corporation were affected by the data breach. Oracle Corporation immediately got in touch with its customers and required them to change their passwords for all of their accounts.

Luckily, the threat was addressed, and the company's corporate network and its cloud and service offerings were not affected by the code found in the systems.