Mark Hurd, who served as the CEO of Oracle for nearly a decade, has died at the age of 62. In early September, he handed the company over to co-CEO Safra Catz and chairman Larry Ellison to take a leave of absence.
The company did not disclose a cause of death.
Hurd began his career as a salesman for NCR, eventually taking the CEO chair in 2001 after more than 20 years with the company. In 2005, following the ouster of CEO Carly Fiorina over the Compaq merger, Hurd took over at Hewlett-Packard as both CEO and president.
During his time there, he took the struggling post-merger and performed what the New York Times labeled as “one of the great corporate rescue missions in American history.” While CEO of HP, Hurd grew revenue 63% and doubled the share price.
HP parted ways with him in 2010, following an investigation related to an inappropriate relationship with a contractor that revealed he had filed inaccurate expense reports. Despite HP’s finding that Hurd had violated company policy, Ellison deemed a huge mistake and quickly brought Hurd aboard as president just one month later.
Hurd’s success at Oracle, which included record stock prices this year, was in part due to his complete salesforce realignment in 2013. Hurd’s vision was to ensure that each member of his sales team was an expert in one product category. To execute on that vision, Oracle hired 4,000 new employees that year.
In 2014, he and Catz were named co-CEOs. Hurd handled marketing, sales, and served as the face of the company for media and investors. Catz focused on legal and financial aspects of the company.
Hurd’s history with scandals, including hiring a security consultant to observe a journalist and an HP board member, made him a divisive figure. However, the corporate world loved him for his successes. Hurd’s accolades include being named one of Fortune’s 25 most powerful business leaders in 2007 and the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2008 CEO of the Year.
Hurd also served as a trustee of Baylor University, from which he graduated. He is survived by his wife Paula, with whom he had two daughters, Kathryn and Kelly.
