Oracle names Mark Hurd as president

Ousted HP chief executive welcomed onto Oracle's board of directors

Mark Hurd has been named at Oracle's new president

Oracle has appointed former HP chief executive Mark Hurd as president and welcomed him with open arms on to the firm’s board.

Reports about Hurd joining Oracle surfaced at the weekend, when it was rumoured that the vendor’s board were planning to hold a vote “within days” on his appointment.

In a statement to the press, Oracle’s chief executive Larry Ellison said he had high hopes for his new recruit.

“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he will do even better at Oracle,” said Ellison. “There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark.”

Hurd left HP last month after an accusation of sexual harassment was made against him by soft porn actress and former HP contractor Jodie Fisher.

On his new appointment, Hurd added: “I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage.

“We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month and I’m excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry.”