Oracle appoints Hilary Maxson as CFO to manage its $50 billion AI data centre push

In short: Oracle has appointed Hilary Maxson, former executive vice president and group chief financial officer at Schneider Electric, as its new chief financial officer, effective 6 April 2026. Maxson reports to chief executive Clay Magouyrk and takes on the role at a moment when Oracle is committing $50 billion in capital expenditure for its current fiscal year, has laid off up to 30,000 employees, and operates as a central partner in the Stargate AI data centre joint venture with OpenAI and SoftBank.

A CFO role reinstated after a decade

For more than a decade, Oracle concentrated financial oversight at the very top of its leadership structure. Safra Catz, who became chief executive in 2014, simultaneously held the title of principal financial officer, combining roles that most companies of Oracle’s scale separate. That changed in September 2025, when Catz was appointed executive vice chair of Oracle’s board ...