The Island of Former CEO?
Just what product is he going to be engineering?
Yacht captain & former CIA employee/agent.
I worked for Oracle’s video server development group for a few years. We were in the same building as Ellison’s office (500) in Redwood City. I saw him ambling around the parking lot a few times, cell phone clamped to his ear.
There was a story that circulated among the managers: A call went out for ideas for wordage to put on the sign on Ellison’s reserved parking spot, which employees kept using. The winner: “Exit Interview Parking”
True story:
A few months before the advanced server division was sold off, Ellison gave us an audience. We were shuffled to a fancy conference room, where we waited . . . and waited.
There was a sideboard in back with soda, ice buckets, and plastic cups. The usual Coke product we had in employee fridges. But on a table up front was this black plastic octagonal container with FANCY soda. Orangina, IPC Root Beer, that kind of thing. I helped myself to a couple, and two of my coworkers hit this stash as well.
Eventually a flunky came in and announced that Mr. Ellison was due in shortly, and that we should feel free to enjoy a soda. BUT NOT THE SODAS FROM THE BLACK OCTAGON, THOSE WERE FOR MR. ELLISON!
The flunky didn’t see me or the others slamming back our illicit pop, but we were terrified. Would Ellison spot my bottle of root beer? Sniff the air and detect the scent of Orangina on Tim’s breath?
Well, or course he didn’t notice, and didn’t even have a soda for himself. I grabbed another soda on the way out, and kept it until we all got notices the next fall.
So, a beloved boss then, eh?
Distant and scary for us in the trenches.
At the time (97-00) he was a generous tyrant. Free soda and an espresso machine in the break room, and other perks. Our floor had an executive meeting room, which very often had leftover fancy catered business lunch food.
What an interesting use of the word “earn.” The IRS uses this word in a different way, to denote wages received as compensation for work.
When was the last time he came near a product?
I’m guessing he wants to spend more time with his island.
Yes I am surprised nobody is making the Oracle/spook connection. Those big NSA data centers are running Oracle.
If I owned Lanai, that’s what I would do.
Is “product development” now a euphemism for “becoming a Bond villain”?
Hank Scorpio approves of this euphemism (as well as giving you a generous health plan and three weeks paid vacation).
My first thought was “Ah, he wants to dedicate more time to swim in his money” - I’d forgotten about the island. But yeah, if you’re stinking rich and recently bought a nice tropical island, why wouldn’t you take more time off to enjoy it.
Free soda and an espresso machine, boy, you were living the life! How could this guy even afford his yacht?
Now that Kim Dotcom is retired he can stay on his island as long as he wants.
He’d had one of his [power]yachts in town a few years ago, with a half-court basketball setup on the afterdeck. One of the crew was deployed in a zodiac to retrieve any balls that went overboard…
Wait… product engineering is the part of engineering taking a widget nearly in production and making sure the apathetic, destructive factory worker won’t destroy that many of them. That is an odd thing to step down to, most people would want to get back into development or design.
Wow, I think the moderator just outright deleted my disparaging comment about Mark Hurd being a misogynistic, unpleasant, and immoral person. Here is a new post with a link and without an F-bomb.
aka profit-sharing.
By the time the air cleared over the reasons Hurd was shown the door, it had become obvious that he was everything that companies were looking for in a CEO, and a terrible excuse for a human being. This point was brought home again when Ellison hired Hurd and defended his choice.
