Mark Hurd served as the former president and recruitment chair of the Texas Lambda Chapter at Baylor University. As CEO of Oracle Corporation and a member of Oracle’s board of directors, Mark Hurd remained an active supporter of Phi Delta Theta. Mark Hurd was honored with the Phi Delta Theta Nance-Millett Free Enterprise Award in 2010 for his contributions to the free enterprise system. Additionally, he regularly met with the Texas Lambda Chapter at his alma mater, Baylor University, to share leadership lessons from his experiences in business.
In his role as CEO, Mark Hurd was responsible for overseeing the corporate direction and strategy for Oracle’s global field operations, including marketing, sales, consulting, and alliances. He focused on strategy, leadership, innovation, and customer experience. Mark Hurd played an instrumental role in driving the transition of Oracle’s 430,000-plus worldwide customers from on-premises software and hardware deployments to Oracle Cloud services.
Mark Hurd graduated from Baylor University in 1979, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He attended the university on a tennis scholarship and credits his leadership position within the fraternity with helping him hone his time management skills.
Following graduation from Baylor, Mark Hurd continued to support his alma mater, especially through its tennis program. He helped fund the renovations to the Baylor tennis facility which was later renamed the Hurd Tennis Center in honor of his family’s generosity to the tennis program. Mark Hurd regularly contributed to the Baylor Bear fund and the Men’s Tennis Excellence Fund, and he and his wife Paula contributed the lead gift to the Baylor Give Light initiative. Their donation aided in the creation of a new welcome center on campus. Upon completion, the facility will be named the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center. Mark Hurd was a member of the Baylor Board of Regents and was honored with the 2012-2013 Baylor Meritorious Achievement Award in recognition of his extraordinary service to Baylor.
As a former tennis player, Mark Hurd was passionate about supporting Baylor’s tennis program as well as all up-and-coming tennis players. Mark Hurd played an important part in Oracle Corporation’s support of American tennis. He helped to create the Oracle Tennis Awards, a $100,000 award given to one male and one female professional tennis player each year to help them transition from collegiate tennis to the professional tennis circuit. Mark Hurd also led the development of the Oracle Challenger series, a competition aimed at helping young tennis players gain experience and recognition in the professional realm, as well as Oracle’s partnership with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
In addition to his support for Baylor University and American tennis, Mark Hurd created the Oracle “Class of” program which was designed to help promising recent grads learn the fundamentals of business outside of the college campus and prepare for a job at Oracle.
With more than 40 years of experience, Mark Hurd was regularly recognized for his accomplishments as a technology industry leader. He was included in Forbes’ Market’s Best Managers for 2009 and named one of Fortune magazine’s 25 Most Powerful People in Business in 2007. Mark Hurd frequently shared his perspectives on business and technology. In 2004, he published The Value Factor with Lars Nyberg, a book that shared advice on how companies and individuals can set themselves apart from the competition and succeed in the business world.
Mark Hurd, a renowned business leader, father and husband, died Oct. 18, 2019.
