Quick Facts
Biography
Safra Catz (Hebrew: צפרא כץ, born December 1, 1961) is an Israeli-born American business executive. She has been an executive at Oracle Corporation since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011 she was named co-president and chief financial officer, reporting to founder/CEO Larry Ellison. On September 18, 2014 Oracle announced that Larry Ellison will step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Safra Catz have been named as the new CEOs.
Career
Catz earned a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986.She was a banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, joining in 1986; Catz served 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. She has been a non-executive director of Hyperion Solutions since April 14, 2007. She has been a member of the executive council of TechNet since March 14, 2013. She served as a director of PeopleSoft Inc. since December 30, 2004 and Stellent Inc. since December 12, 2006.
Catz joined Oracle Corporation in April 1999. Catz became a member of the company's Board of Directors in October 2001 and President of Oracle Corporation in early 2004. She is credited for having driven Oracle's 2005 efforts to acquire software rival PeopleSoft in a $10.3 billion takeover. Catz is also the company's Chief Financial Officer, serving temporarily in that role from November 2005 to September 2008, and from April 2011 to the present. Mark Hurd joined her as Co-President in 2010.
In 2009 she was ranked by Fortune as the 12th most powerful woman in business. In 2009 she was also ranked by Forbes as the 16th most powerful business-woman. In 2014, she was ranked at #24. According to an Equilar analysis published by Fortune, she was in 2011 the highest-paid woman among Fortune 1000 companies, receiving an estimated US$51,695,742 in total remuneration.
Catz is a lecturer in accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Catz was a director of HSBC Group from 2008 to 2015.
After the election of Donald Trump, Catz was one of several high-profile CEOs, including, among others, Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg and Jeff Bezos, 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.
Personal life
Catz was born in Holon, Israel, to Jewish parents.. Her father was an immigrant from Romania. She moved from Israel to Brookline, Massachusetts at the age of six. She graduated from Brookline High School. Catz is married to Gal Tirosh and has two sons, Scott and Gary.