Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison said the software giant won’t hire a second chief executive officer to run the business alongside CEO Safra Catz, deciding not to replace Mark Hurd who died recently.
Initially, Ellison publicly mentioned two potential candidates — Steve Miranda, the company’s cloud applications chief, and Don Johnson, who leads Oracle’s cloud infrastructure business. Sources also mentioned three other possible candidates.
Ellison said last Thursday during a conference call with analysts there were no plans for having a second CEO and the company’s second-tier of executives, who are being groomed for future leadership.
“Those people will be the next CEO when Safra and I retire, which will be no time soon.”
Bloomberg News reported in November that Oracle decided to hold off on naming a direct successor to Hurd and was instead focusing on grooming its leaders who are now running business divisions. Hurd had been CEO with Catz for five years before his death in October.
