When a woman can’t get the top job, it’s a glass ceiling. When she’s handed a sinking ship, it’s a glass cliff. So what’s it called when a female CEO hands over the reins when her company takes off?
We don’t have a name for it yet, but it happened yesterday at Oracle. Safra Catz, the longtime Oracle exec, passed control to two new (and younger) co-CEOs. Meanwhile, Oracle’s stock climbed enough to briefly make founder Larry Ellison the world’s richest person. In its most recent earnings announcement, Oracle revealed an astonishing pipeline of multibillion-dollar contracts and a stronger position in the AI race then previously understood. It projected it would reach $144 billion in revenue by 2030; a $300 billion deal with OpenAI will help with that. Plus, the tech company is part of a consortium of U.S. investors who will control U.S. operations of TikTok, the White House announced yesterday.
Catz has been a co-CEO since 2014 and became sole CEO in 2019 after the death of co-CEO Mark Hurd. Her own successors are Clay Magouyrk, who was president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Mike Sicilia, who was president of Oracle Industries. Magouryk is 39 and Sicilia is 54; Catz is 63. Oracle’s stock is up more than 500% since Catz took over as sole CEO.
“It is absolutely time,” she told analysts yesterday. Oracle is “entering the AI era,” Ellison added.
Her exit knocks a female CEO from the Fortune 500—and a high-profile one at that. Oracle is No. 87 on this year’s Fortune 500. There are only 11 female CEOs remaining in the Fortune 100. Upon publication of the 2025 Fortune 500 list in June, women ran 11% of companies on the ranking.
Catz is taking a position as executive vice chair of Oracle’s board, working alongside Ellison as executive chair. Oracle is a unique company, and with its charismatic founder as executive chair there’s always been another important voice in the room alongside its CEO. Catz plans to remain involved in Oracle’s operations.
“You want to make a transition like this when things are great,” she said. While she was talking about Oracle’s business, the same can be true for the exits of female CEOs. Too often, women are fired under pressure after being given too little time to right the ship. While it might have been nice to see a female leader continue to lead Oracle to new heights in the AI era, Catz deserves a huge amount of credit for seeing the company this far.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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PARTING WORDS
"If Lilith taught me anything, it taught me there is a great strength in coming together to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down."
— Sarah McLachlan, whose new documentary is Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery