Mark Hurd 30 Years of Tech: The Story

In the business world, the name Mark Hurd has become well known over the last 30 years. Mark Hurd’s continued successes ever since he began as a field salesman for NCR Corp in 1980 have shown his dedication to hard work and self improvement. There are countless field salesman and low level marketing employees in the world of business. Many of them rise over time. Few, however, have risen to such great heights as Mark Hurd.

Part of what has made Mark Hurd so successful is his dedication to excellence and his ambition. The business world is a hard school to learn in, and technology business, in particular, is even harder. Success necessitates quick decision making and forward thinking to keep up with the fast moving and ever changing world of technology.

This post is about the co-CEO of Oracle. We have gather all the great information about him and his career from the Internet and wrote a well organized article.

Working with NCR Corp

Mark Hurd climbed the ladder at NCR Corp, rising from field salesman to positions of ever increasing responsibility and management. NCR Corp, formerly known as the National Cash Register, has been a US-based company specializing in computer hardware, software, and electronics. For a young man interested in business and technology, it was a perfect place to start.

By 1994, Mark Hurd had worked his way up to Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Americas Professional Services Division for NCR Corp, a position which he held for 4 years. In 1998, Mark Hurd was promoted to Senior Vice President of Teradata Solutions Group. After 2 years he was named Executive Vice President of NCR Corp, and from 2000 on, Mark Hurd wore several different hats as one of the top managers of the corporation.

While serving as Executive VP, Mark Hurd was also the Chief Operating Officer of the Teradata Division and Global Leader in such fields as enterprise data warehousing, data warehousing services, and analytic applications. In 2001, he was named the president of NCR Corp, a position which he held until his departure in 2005.

In 2002, Mark Hurd began serving as COO of NCR Corp, with the responsibility of driving its business performance. This included performance in retail store automation, payment and imaging, financial self service, worldwide customer services, Systemedia and Teradata data warehousing. Mark Hurd was instrumental during this time in planning and carrying out strategies that maximized the operating efficiency and profits of NCR Corp.

Hewlett-Packard Career

From 2003 until his departure, Mark was named Chief Executive Officer, and he served as president and CEO for 2 years, completing a total of 25 years of service at NCR Corp. After leaving NCR Corp, Mark Hurd continued his success as CEO and president of Hewlett-Packard. After only one year at HP, he was named chairman of the board after the resignation of former chairman Pat Dunn.

Under Mark Hurd’s direction, HP increased its profits for 22 straight quarters, meeting Wall Street expectations for all but one of those quarters. The company rose to first in laptop computer sales in 2006 and first in desktop computer sales in 2007, a position which it held throughout his tenure. Mark Hurd also led the company to a 63% increase in revenue and a doubling of stock prices.

One of the most impressive feats that Mark Hurd accomplished while at HP was in the success of a merger that had begun before he even arrived on the scene. In 2002, HP negotiated a merger with computer company, Compaq, in a move heavily criticized by experts at the time. Carly Fiorina, the chairwoman and CEO before Mark Hurd, was unable to turn the combined company into a smoothly operating and profiting business.

When Mark Hurd arrived and took over the company, he managed to pull off what the New York Times called “one of the great rescue missions in American corporate history, refocusing the strife-ridden company and leading it to five years of revenue gains and a stock that soared 130 percent.” Even during the middle of the recession, when Hurd himself prophesied a 5% drop in sales for 2009, company profit increased by 6%.

Joins the Oracle Corporation

Mark Hurd was recognized many times for his successes as a manager and business leader throughout his time at HP by such groups as Fortune 500, Business 2.0, and Forbes. In 2010, Mark left HP to become the president and member of the board of the Oracle Corporation. As a leader at the Oracle Corporation, Mark Hurd is responsible for Oracle’s global field operations, focusing primarily on strategy, innovation, leadership, and customers. There is no doubt that Oracle Corporation will be successful in the years to come, with Mark Hurd at the helm. The reality is that when Hurd speaks the World listens. He has a proven record of increasing companies growth and revenue for over 30 years.

OpenWorld Events:
Mr. Hurd is a regular speaker at OpenWorld. This year, 2015, he is speaking about the future of cloud and forecasting its predictions. According to Diginomica, Hurd declared victory in the Cloud computing niche.

UPDATE: Mark Hurd continues with his success at Oracle in 2016. The company stock and cloud revenue is on the rise each quarters as he as done in the past with other companies. If you want to really get to know him I recommend this article by USAToday called “Meet the new co-CEOs of Oracle: Mark Hurd and Safra Catz.” Be sure to check that out on Google.