Safra Catz and John Stankey are two veteran American corporate leaders associated with Oracle and AT&T respectively. As of September 2026, Catz is Executive Vice Chair of Oracle’s Board of Directors, while Stankey remains Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T.
There is no reliable public evidence showing that Safra Catz and John Stankey are relatives, spouses, longtime colleagues, or partners in a major joint business venture. Their names are better understood together as a comparison between two executives who have spent decades helping large technology and communications companies navigate major strategic changes.
Who Are Safra Catz and John Stankey?
Safra Catz is best known for her long career at Oracle. She joined the enterprise technology company in 1999, became a director in 2001 and went on to serve as president, chief financial officer and CEO. She stepped down as CEO in September 2025 and became Executive Vice Chair of Oracle’s board.
John Stankey has spent more than four decades within AT&T and its corporate predecessors. He joined the company in 1985, held leadership positions across technology, operations, strategy and media, became CEO and president in July 2020, and added the role of board chairman in February 2025.
| Detail | Safra Catz | John Stankey |
|---|---|---|
| Best known for | Former CEO of Oracle | Chairman and CEO of AT&T |
| Current primary role | Executive Vice Chair, Oracle Board | Chairman, CEO and President, AT&T |
| Joined main company | 1999 | 1985 |
| CEO tenure | 2014 to September 2025 | July 2020 to present |
| Main industry | Enterprise software, cloud and AI infrastructure | Telecommunications, fiber and wireless |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania, Wharton and Penn Law | Loyola Marymount University and UCLA |
| Other notable experience | Investment banking, corporate boards | WarnerMedia, technology, operations and corporate strategy |
Safra Catz and John Stankey: Is There a Direct Connection?
No significant direct relationship between Safra Catz and John Stankey is documented in their official corporate biographies, current board disclosures or major SEC filings. They have built their main careers at different companies and in different parts of the technology sector.
Catz’s career is centered on Oracle, enterprise technology, corporate finance and strategic transactions. Stankey’s career is centered on AT&T, telecommunications infrastructure, wireless services, broadband and, during an earlier period, media.
There is some indirect industry overlap. Catz currently sits on the board of Paramount Skydance, while Stankey previously served as CEO of WarnerMedia before AT&T separated the business and combined it with Discovery in 2022. That places both executives at different points in the broader intersection of technology, communications and media, but it does not establish a personal or professional partnership between them.
Safra Catz’s Career Before Becoming Oracle CEO
Catz’s professional background combines finance, law and technology.
University of Pennsylvania records identify her as a Wharton graduate from the class of 1983 and a Penn Law graduate from 1986. Before moving into technology management, she worked at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, eventually becoming a managing director in investment banking.
She joined Oracle in 1999 and rapidly became one of the company’s most important senior executives. Her Oracle roles eventually included president, chief financial officer, executive vice president and senior vice president. She joined Oracle’s board in 2001.
Her financial expertise became particularly relevant as Oracle expanded through acquisitions. For example, when Oracle announced its agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems in 2009 for approximately $7.4 billion, Catz, then Oracle president, publicly discussed the expected financial contribution of the deal.
How Safra Catz Became CEO of Oracle
Oracle changed its leadership structure in September 2014 when founder Larry Ellison left the CEO position. Catz and Mark Hurd became CEOs, while Ellison remained deeply involved as Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.
Catz continued in the CEO structure for more than a decade. Following Hurd’s departure from the role in 2019, she became Oracle’s sole CEO.
Her tenure coincided with one of the most significant transformations in Oracle’s history. The company that had long been associated primarily with databases and enterprise software increasingly shifted toward cloud infrastructure, cloud applications and large scale computing services.
That transition also placed Oracle more directly into competition with companies such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google in cloud infrastructure.
Why Safra Catz Is No Longer Oracle CEO
Oracle announced a major succession decision on September 22, 2025. Catz retired from the CEO position and was appointed Executive Vice Chair of the Board.
Oracle promoted Clay Magouyrk, previously president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Mike Sicilia, previously president of Oracle Industries, to serve as CEOs.
The change is important because many older profiles still describe Safra Catz simply as “Oracle CEO.” That information is no longer current.
As of September 2026, Oracle officially lists her as Executive Vice Chair of the Oracle Board of Directors.
What Is Safra Catz Doing in 2026?
Catz remains connected to several major organizations.
Oracle lists her as Executive Vice Chair, while Stanford identifies Safra A. Catz as a lecturer at its Graduate School of Business. Oracle’s biography also says she serves on the Board of Trustees of In-Q-Tel and has chaired the Oracle Education Foundation board since 2004.
She also serves as a director of Paramount Skydance Corporation. A July 2026 SEC filing confirmed her election to the company’s board for another term.
Her position therefore differs substantially from that of a retired executive who has fully left corporate life. She is no longer running Oracle’s daily operations as CEO, but she remains part of its senior board leadership and holds other significant corporate and academic positions.
Oracle’s Position After the Catz CEO Era
Oracle has continued expanding rapidly in cloud infrastructure and AI computing under its new CEO structure.
On September 10, 2026, Oracle reported fiscal 2027 first quarter revenue of $19.3 billion, up 30 percent year over year. Cloud revenue reached $11.6 billion, while cloud infrastructure revenue increased 121 percent to $7.4 billion. Oracle also reported remaining performance obligations of $664 billion.
These results belong to Oracle’s post Catz CEO period, so they should not simply be credited to her personally. They do, however, show the scale of the cloud and infrastructure business that emerged from the strategic transition Oracle pursued during the latter part of her executive career.
John Stankey’s Career at AT&T
John Stankey followed a very different career path.
Rather than moving from investment banking into technology, Stankey spent his career rising through the same broad corporate organization. He joined AT&T in 1985 and gained experience across information technology, network operations, corporate strategy, telecommunications services and media.
AT&T’s current biography lists several former roles, including Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, CEO of AT&T Operations, CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, Chief Strategy Officer, CEO of AT&T Entertainment Group, CEO of WarnerMedia and Chief Operating Officer.
This unusually broad internal experience meant that by the time he became CEO, Stankey had already managed or overseen many of AT&T’s key businesses.
John Stankey’s Education and Early Career
Stankey earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from Loyola Marymount University and later completed an MBA at UCLA.
UCLA identifies him as a 1991 alumnus of the Anderson School of Management. The university awarded him its John E. Anderson Distinguished Alumni Award in 2025.
His educational background in finance may look somewhat similar to Catz’s early business training, but their career development differed considerably. Catz entered technology after investment banking, while Stankey built his expertise internally through decades of operating roles at AT&T.
From WarnerMedia to AT&T CEO
One of Stankey’s most consequential assignments came during AT&T’s expansion into entertainment.
He served as CEO of WarnerMedia from June 2018 through April 2020 after AT&T acquired Time Warner. He then served as AT&T’s president and chief operating officer before becoming CEO and president in July 2020.
AT&T subsequently changed direction.
On April 8, 2022, AT&T completed the separation of WarnerMedia and its combination with Discovery, creating Warner Bros. Discovery. SEC filings show that AT&T shareholders initially received shares representing approximately 71 percent of the combined business.
The transaction represented a major strategic reset. Instead of continuing to build AT&T around both telecommunications infrastructure and a large entertainment operation, the company increasingly concentrated its resources on communications networks and connectivity.
John Stankey’s Strategy at AT&T in 2026
AT&T’s current strategy centers on fiber broadband, 5G wireless services and customers who purchase multiple connectivity services from the company.
The company formally revised its operating segments beginning with first quarter 2026 reporting to reflect its focus on what it calls “converged advanced connectivity services.”
AT&T’s second quarter 2026 results illustrate that direction. The company reported:
- $31.6 billion in quarterly revenue
- $12.3 billion in adjusted EBITDA
- $4.7 billion in free cash flow
- 432,000 postpaid phone net additions
- 367,000 fiber net additions
- 279,000 fixed wireless net additions
- 38.6 million total consumer and business locations reached with fiber
AT&T said it remained on track to exceed 40 million fiber locations by the end of 2026 and more than 60 million by the end of 2030.
Stankey therefore remains an active operating CEO, unlike Catz, whose primary Oracle position is now at the board level.
How Their Career Paths Differ
The careers of Safra Catz and John Stankey reveal two distinct routes to the top of a major public company.
Catz Built Her Career Around Finance and Corporate Strategy
Catz entered Oracle after an investment banking career and repeatedly served in positions involving finance and senior corporate management.
Her experience included Oracle’s president and CFO roles before the CEO position. The combination of finance, legal education and technology management became a defining feature of her career.
Stankey Built His Career Through Internal Operations
Stankey developed inside AT&T.
His path took him through information technology, network operations, strategy, business services, entertainment and corporate operations before he became CEO.
Rather than being recruited into the company as an established finance executive, he accumulated increasingly broad responsibility during more than 40 years at AT&T.
Catz and Stankey Have Both Managed Major Corporate Transitions
This is where a comparison becomes more meaningful.
Catz spent years helping Oracle evolve from its traditional enterprise software foundation toward cloud infrastructure, cloud applications and eventually AI focused computing infrastructure.
Stankey, meanwhile, has overseen AT&T during its movement away from a sprawling telecommunications and enter
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