How Larry Ellison developed Oracle is a story that starts in 1977, full of adventurous bets that most people thought, wrongly, he would lose. Decades later, Oracle is the custodian of a staggering portion of the globe’s data.
He did it once. He did it twice. Roughly 10 years ago, he stepped down as CEO. Business was steady, though not spectacular, and Oracle risked losing its luster. Larry reinvigorated his role as Oracle’s chief technology officer and literally rebuilt the company with cloud at its core and AI heavily embedded, branching out into data centers and health care. The results are spectacular. Now he’s working on how applying technology can solve problems for some of the most disadvantaged communities and countries, where we work together on delivering transformative change.
Larry has the mind of an engineer, the curiosity of a thousand cats, and the humility to keep learning—which is the chief characteristic of the true changemaker.
Blair is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and founder of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which has partnered with Ellison’s philanthropic foundation
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