CNN\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Here is a look at the life of Larry Ellison,<\/a> co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle.\n <\/p>\n \n Birth date: August 17, 1944\n <\/p>\n \n Birth place: New York, New York\n <\/p>\n \n Full name: Lawrence Joseph Ellison\n <\/p>\n \n Father: Adoptive – Louis Ellison, accountant; Birth – Italian-American air force pilot\n <\/p>\n \n Mother: Adoptive – Lillian (Spellman) Ellison, aunt of his birth mother, Florence Spellman\n <\/p>\n \n Marriages: Melanie Craft (2003-2010, divorced); Barbara Boothe (1983-1987, divorced); Nancy Wheeler (1977-1978, divorced); Adda Quinn (1967-1974, divorced)\n <\/p>\n \n Children: with Barbara Boothe: David and Megan\n <\/p>\n \n Education: Attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1962-1964; Attended University of Chicago, 1966\n <\/p>\n \n At age 12, Ellison learned that he had been adopted when he was 9 months old by his birth mother\u2019s aunt and uncle.\n <\/p>\n \n Florence Spellman, Ellison\u2019s birth mother, was 19 years old and not married to Ellison\u2019s birth father, whom Ellison has never met.\n <\/p>\n \n Ellison is a licensed pilot and owns several airplanes.\n <\/p>\n \n The inspiration for Oracle came from a 1976 white paper by IBM Research, which posited the potential of a relational database management system.\n <\/p>\n \n 1977 – Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates found Software Development Laboratories (SDL), and are contracted by the CIA to build a database program code-named \u201cOracle.\u201d The company\u2019s name is later changed to Relational Technologies, then Oracle Corporation.\n <\/p>\n \n 1977 – Becomes CEO of Oracle Corporation.\n <\/p>\n \n 1978-1996 – President of Oracle.\n <\/p>\n \n 1986 – Oracle goes public, raising $31.5 million in its initial public offering.\n <\/p>\n \n 1990-1992 – First stint as chairman of the board.\n <\/p>\n \n December 25, 1991 – Suffers a broken neck, punctured lung, and other injuries while bodysurfing in Hawaii.\n <\/p>\n \n 1995-2004 – Second stint as chairman of the board.\n <\/p>\n \n 1997 – Founds the Ellison Medical Foundation, a non-profit that supports biomedical research on age-related diseases and disabilities.\n <\/p>\n \n August 11, 2000 – Founds Oracle Racing, Inc., a sailboat racing syndicate.\n <\/p>\n \n February 14, 2010 – Wins the 33rd America\u2019s Cup with his BMW Oracle Racing team.\n <\/p>\n \n August 4, 2010 – The Giving Pledge<\/a> \u2013 a movement led by Warren Buffett<\/a> and Bill and Melinda Gates<\/a> \u2013 reveals that Ellison has pledged to give away \u201cat least 95%\u201d of his wealth to charity.\n <\/p>\n \n June 21, 2012 – According to a statement from the governor of Hawaii, Ellison has bought 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lana\u2019i.\n <\/p>\n \n September 25, 2013 – Oracle Team USA, backed by Ellison, comes from behind to win and successfully defend the America\u2019s Cup.<\/a> The team was given a two point penalty and fined $250,000 after illegally placing lead pellets in their catamarans to gain extra weight.\n <\/p>\n \n September 18, 2014 – Ellison announces that he is stepping down as Oracle\u2019s CEO. Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, Ellison\u2019s top lieutenants, will replace him as co-CEOs. Ellison is named Oracle\u2019s executive chairman of the board and chief technology officer.\n <\/p>\n \n May-June 2015 – Ellison donates $3 million to the Conservative Solutions PAC, a group supporting Marco Rubio\u2019s<\/a> presidential campaign. He contributes $1 million in May and $2 million in June, according to FEC filings<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n May 11, 2016 – Announces a $200 million donation to the University of Southern California<\/a> to establish a cancer research and treatment center, the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC.\n <\/p>\n \n March 19, 2018 – Launches Sensei<\/a>, a hydroponic, indoor food-growing company, with author and physician David Agus.\n <\/p>\n \n December 28, 2018 – Ellison is named to Tesla\u2019s board<\/a> as an independent director.\n <\/p>\n \n January 11, 2022 – Ellison gives $15 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC supporting South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott.\n <\/p>\n \n April 2024 – Ellison is included in Time magazine\u2019s 2024 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.\n <\/p>\n \n January 21, 2025 – Ellison, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son<\/a> appear at the White House alongside President Trump<\/a> to announce that they will create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.\n <\/p>\n \n September 14, 2020 – Oracle confirms<\/a> that TikTok is making Oracle its business partner in the United States<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n