Mark Hurd, who stepped down last month as chief executive of US computer titan Hewlett-Packard after a sexual harassment investigation, has been named co-president of software giant Oracle.
"Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he'll do even better at Oracle," OracleCEO Larry Ellison said on Sept. 6.
"There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark," said Ellison, Oracle's founder.
Hurd, 53, resigned as HP's CEO after a sexual harassment probe uncovered subterfuge with company expenses. The investigation found he had not broken harassment rules, but was in breach of HP's "standards of business conduct."
Oracle said Hurd has been named to the company's board of directors and will report to Ellison.
"Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," said Oracle co-president Safra Catz. "As Oracle continues to grow we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business."
Oracle said the company's other co-president, Charles Phillips, was leaving the company and stepping down from the board of directors.
"When Charles approached me last December and expressed his desire to transition out of the company, I asked him to stay on through the Sun integration which has gone well," Ellison said. "We will miss his talent and leadership, but I respect his decision."
Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, on January 27.
Hurd said he was "excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry."
"I believe Oracle's strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage," he said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
