Spectrum - Volume 19 Issue 29 April 24, 1997 - Lane to speak at Commencement

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Lane to speak at Commencement

Spectrum Volume 19 Issue 29 - April 24, 1997

Raymond J. Lane, president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corporation, will speak at the undergraduate Commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 10, at 9 a.m. in Lane Stadium. The university will confer 2,760 bachelors degrees at this ceremony.

At Oracle, Lane is responsible for planning, communicating, and implementing policy and strategy decisions formulated by the firm's Executive Committee. Prior to being named president and COO, Lane was executive vice president of Oracle Corporation and president of Worldwide Operations. Lane joined the company in 1992 as president of Oracle USA. Under Lane's leadership, Oracle's sales have grown from approximately $1 billion in 1993 to $4.2 billion in annual revenues in 1996.

During his tenure at Oracle, Lane has successfully expanded the focus of the business by combining the company's core technology leadership with application-oriented services. Lane streamlined business practices revamped world-wide customer support, recruited senior industry leadership and implemented business procedures that balance the use of direct and indirect distribution channels. He has initiated an industry-solution strategy that provides industry expertise and reusable software modules in specific target markets. Lane also heads the Oracle Management Committee, which spans all organizations within the company to assure cross-integration of major product and market decisions.

Before joining Oracle, Lane was a senior vice president of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a world-wide consulting practice targeted at helping senior management achieve better results from information technology investments. He also served on the board of directors and the company's executive committee. Prior to Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Lane served as division vice president with Electronic Data Systems Corporation. In addition, he spent 10 years with IBM in various product-management and marketing positions.

Lane holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from West Virginia University. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Mellon University. He has three daughters, one of whom is a student at Virginia Tech.