Mountain View

Overview

Thomas Kurian was President of Product Development at Oracle Corporation from 1996 to 2018. On November 16, 2018, Google announced that Kurian would join as CEO of Google Cloud, replacing Diane Greene.[1]

Early years

Thomas Kurian came from Pampady village of Kottayam district in Kerala, India.[2] He and his twin brother George Kurian came to the United States in 1986 to study at Princeton.[3]

Kurian was accepted to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India[2] where he spent 6 months before deciding to pursue his bachelor’s education in the United States at Princeton. He possesses a BS in electrical engineering from Princeton University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.[4]

Prior to Oracle, Kurian worked with McKinsey and Company as a consultant serving clients in the software, telecommunications, and financial services industries.[4]

Oracle

Kurian joined Oracle in 1996, initially holding various product management and development positions.

His first executive role was as Vice-President of Oracle’s e-Business division, driving a number of company-wide initiatives focused on transforming Oracle into an e-Business.

Next Kurian took responsibility for the Oracle Fusion Middleware product family. Under Mr. Kurians leadership, that business became the company’s fastest-growing business and the industrys leading middleware product suite.[4][5][6][7][8]

Later, Mr. Kurian served as a Senior Vice President of Oracle’s Server Technologies Division responsible for the development and delivery of Oracle Application Servers. He played a key role in bringing Oracle 9i application server to market.[9][10] Application server software became Oracle’s fastest-growing business primarily because of his efforts.[3]

As the President of Product Development, he oversaw Oracle’s 3,000-odd product development efforts. He was responsible for development and delivery of Oracles software product portfolio including Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and ERP, CRM, and supply chain management applications.[4][9][11][12][13]

Thomas Kurian was the 18th highest-paid man in the US in 2010, according to CNN.[14] He was also the 5th highest-paid tech executive in 2010.[15]

On September 6, 2018, Kurian announced he was taking extended time off from the company.[16]

On September 28, 2018 he resigned from his current designation as president of product development at Oracle.[17]

Google

On November 16, 2018 it was announced that Kurian would be joining Google‘s Cloud organization on November 26, 2018 as the SVP of Google Cloud (and eventually CEO of Google Cloud in January 2019), replacing Diane Greene.