Oracle on Monday announced that Hillary Maxson would be its new Chief Financial Officer. Maxson, 48, is joining from French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric where she had served as group CFO. Her appointment is effective immediately, according to Oracle. The appointment reinstates the position after Safra Catz became co-CEO and principal financial officer in 2014.
“We are pleased that we found a financial leader that matches our culture of strong financial and operational discipline and has experience scaling capital intensive global organizations,” said Clay Magouyrk, CEO, Oracle.
“Hilary’s experience spans industrial, infrastructure, and software businesses—sectors where capital intensity and execution excellence are critical to success. Alongside Mike Sicilia, CEO, we are looking forward to working together with our new CFO. I’d like to also thank Doug Kehring for running the finance organization the past six months as we prepared for this transition to Hilary. Doug will be returning his focus to helping optimize and accelerate our go-to-market operations.”
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Maxson said “Oracle has built extraordinary momentum at the intersection of cloud, AI, and industry applications. I’m excited to join at this pivotal moment, and I look forward to partnering with Clay, Mike, and the broader leadership team to continue to invest with discipline and to translate this momentum into durable, long‑term value for customers and shareholders.”
Oracle mentioned that since Maxson joined Schneider in 2017, the company transformed from an electrical equipment supplier into a digital energy technology partner for key segments through software, data and AI.
This appointment comes less than a week after Oracle announced thousands of layoffs across its offices worldwide. On March 31, the employees were fired via an email that said “After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change.”
Oracle is also committing an increasing amount of funds to AI data centers. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana wrote that “the choice of an industrial company CFO highlights the importance of the buildup of AI infrastructure within Oracle, and signals that growth lies in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure segment, not databases or applications.”
In order to fund the buildout, Oracle signaled it intends to tap both debt and equity markets for up to $50 billion this year, according to Bloomberg. Analysts tracking the company expect it to run negative free cash flow into 2030 as construction costs mount, Bloomberg reported.