What is Safra Catz's Net Worth and Salary?
Safra Catz is an Israeli-American billionaire banker and technology executive who has a net worth of $2 billion. Safra Catz serves as the CEO of the multinational software company Oracle Corporation. She joined the company in 1999, and became co-president in 2004. When company founder Larry Ellison announced he was stepping down as CEO in 2014, Catz and Mark Hurd became the new co-CEOs of Oracle. Hurd stepped down in 2019, and Catz became the solo CEO. Catz has also been politically active, having donated to the presidential campaigns of Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, among others.
Oracle Shares and Salary
According to the company's latest SEC filings, Safra directly owns a little under 9 million shares of Oracle. She also owns millions of options that are earned through a mix of performance milestones. The combination of her directly owned shares and options first pushed her net worth into the billionaire range in 2015.
Safra's annual base salary for serving as CEO is $950,000. She earns significantly more every year from bonuses and share grants. For example, in 2021 her total compensation came to $10 million. In 2022 she earned $138 million, thanks largely to a one-time $130 million option grant. And in 2023 she earned a bit over $5 million.
Early Life and Education
Safra Catz was born on December 1, 1961 in Holon, Israel to Jewish parents. She is of Romanian descent on her father's side. When she was six, Catz moved with her parents to Brookline, Massachusetts. There, she graduated from Brookline High School. Catz went on to attend the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, earning her bachelor's degree in 1983. She subsequently attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, from which she earned her JD in 1986.
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
Catz began her career as an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in the 1980s. After holding various positions there, she became a senior vice president in early 1994. In 1997, Catz was promoted to managing director, a position she held until 1999.
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Oracle Corporation
In 1999, Catz joined the computer technology company Oracle Corporation as its senior vice president. She became a member of the company's board of directors in 2001, and became co-president in 2004. In 2005, Catz was integral in Oracle's successful efforts to acquire rival software company PeopleSoft in a $10.3 billion takeover. That year, she began serving as Oracle's temporary CFO. By the end of the decade, Catz was ranked among the most powerful women in business by Forbes and Fortune magazines. In 2010, she was joined as co-president by Mark Hurd. The following year, Catz was reportedly the highest-paid woman across all Fortune 1000 companies, receiving an estimated $51.6 million in total remuneration. She eventually became the highest-paid female CEO of any US company in 2017, despite a drop in her total compensation.
In 2019, with the resignation of co-president Mark Hurd due to health issues, Catz became the sole CEO of Oracle. The following year, the company announced it was moving its global headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas. In late 2021, Oracle announced the acquisition of the health information technology company Cerner. It subsequently purchased the AI and automation tools company Federos. In the summer of 2022, Oracle was smacked with a class-action lawsuit alleging that it had been operating a surveillance apparatus tracking and recording the personal information of hundreds of millions of individuals. Early the next year, the company announced its investment of $1.5 billion in Saudi Arabia to grow the technology sector in the country. Part of its investment includes the opening of a data center in the capital of Riyadh.
Other Business Activities
Among her business activities beyond Oracle, Catz serves as a member of the executive council of TechNet. From 2008 to 2015, she was a director of the financial services group HSBC. In late 2017, Catz was elected to the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company. Elsewhere, she serves as a lecturer in accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2021, Catz received attention for her stock trading, notably her acquisition of 2.25 million shares via the conversion of derivatives. She went on to sell the shares on the open market at around double the price.
Political Involvement
A Republican, Catz has donated to the presidential campaigns of Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. In 2016, she was one of several major American CEOs to be invited to talk with Trump about taking up a position in his administration. A couple years after that, Catz was reportedly on the shortlist to replace H. R. McMaster as National Security Advisor. She also donated over $150,000 to Republican groups and individuals during the 2018 election cycle. Later, in 2020, Catz donated $125,000 to Trump's ultimately failed reelection campaign. With Joe Biden in office, Catz was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in 2022.
Personal Life
Catz is married to writer and stay-at-home dad Gal Tirosh, a fellow Israeli-American. Together, they have two sons named Gary and Scott.
