Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison has mourned the death of Mark Hurd, the company’s CEO on Friday.
Hurd passed away aged 62.
“Mark was my close and irreplaceable friend, and trusted colleague,” Ellison said in a memo to Oracle employees that was posted on Mark Hurd’s personal Web site.
“Oracle has lost a brilliant and beloved leader who personally touched the lives of so many of us during his decade at Oracle. All of us will miss Mark’s keen mind and rare ability to analyse, simplify and solve problems quickly.”
Hurd took a leave of absence from Oracle a month ago for an unspecified medical reason.
He had been a chief executive and board director at the tech company since 2010. He serves alongside Safra Catz, who is also CEO. Ellison took over Hurd’s responsibilities when he left.
Reuters reports that Hurd joined Oracle as co-president in September 2010, a month after he was ousted in a controversial fashion from Hewlett-Packard, where he had been chief executive since 2005.
Hurd resigned from HP in August 2010 after allegations of sexually harassing an employee. An internal probe later cleared him of those charges, though it found him guilty of filing inaccurate expense reports.
Long-time friend Ellison stood up for Hurd in an email to New York Times, calling Hurd’s removal the “worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago”.
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