Chief Executive Officer of software giant Oracle, Safra Catz is one of the most powerful and highly paid women of Silicon Valley—but is also one of the most enigmatic. She has made a way for herself from scratch, while assiduously staying away from the limelight, proving you don’t have to be boisterous to be an effective leader.
She rarely grants interviews, or when she does, they’re strictly business-related. From the very beginning, she proved to be a go-getter and does not let herself get distracted from her goals. She once said: “The press is not your friend. The number of executives who actually believe they have friends in the press always amaze me.”
Born in Israel in 1961, she received her formal education in the United states and originally planned to pursue a career in law. She studied business at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she also earned her Juris Doctor degree.
However, in 1986, notwithstanding her law degree, she decided to start working as an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. She said, “My best decision was to choose to go to Wall Street over law. I learned a lot and focused on the expanding software industry at a time when the independent software industry was just beginning. That ultimately brought me to Oracle.”
In 1997, in an effort to be closer to her customers, she requested a transfer to Silicon Valley and joined Oracle as a senior vice president in 1999. Catz has served as CEO since 2014, and since 2001 as a member of the board of directors. In between, she held several other positions. Although her more audacious counterpart, Co-Founder and CTO Larry Ellison, often steals the limelight, she is credited for being the driving force behind Oracle's aggressive acquisition strategy, helping close more than 130 acquisitions including the takeover of their software rival PeopleSoft, a $10 billion deal.
Catz has extended her expertise beyond the software realm, serving as a member of the board of directors for The Walt Disney Company, as a lecturer in accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and also served on the board of directors for HSBC Holdings from 2008 through 2015.
It is no surprise that she ranked number 15 on Forbes’ 2020 Power Woman list. With an estimated net worth of approximately $1.2 billion, Catz is one of the most powerful pillars of success in the business world.