Lawrence Joseph Ellison is a Jewish-American entrepreneur and cofounder of Oracle Corporation, one of the world’s largest software firms. Over the course of his career, he has become one of the wealthiest individuals in the world and a prominent Jewish-American business figure.

Ellison was born in the Bronx, New York, to Florence Spellman, a 19-year-old single mother. At nine months old, after contracting pneumonia, he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Lillian and Louis Ellison, in Chicago. Louis, a Russian Jewish immigrant who had arrived in the United States in 1905, adopted him. Ellison later described his relationship with Lillian as deeply supportive, while Louis often doubted his prospects for success.

Ellison attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he studied science but left at the end of his second year after Lillian’s death. He briefly enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he first encountered computer design. In 1964, he moved to California to pursue new opportunities in the technology sector.

In California, Ellison worked for various firms, including Amdahl Corporation and Ampex. At Ampex, he contributed to a database project for the CIA called “Oracle.” During this period, he was strongly influenced by Edgar F. Codd’s 1970 research paper on relational databases, which laid the foundation for modern data storage and retrieval.

Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates founded Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977 with $2,000 in seed capital. The company sought to create databases compatible with IBM’s System R, though IBM refused to share its code. In 1979, SDL became Relational Software Inc., and by 1982, it had taken the name Oracle Systems Corporation, after its flagship product. The first release was called Oracle 2—deliberately skipping “Version 1” to suggest bugs had already been resolved.

Oracle grew rapidly through the 1980s, going public in 1986 with revenues of $55 million. The company experienced setbacks in the early 1990s due to accounting errors, but rebounded with the launch of Oracle7. Ellison remained CEO until 2014, becoming chairman and chief technology officer.

By 2011, Ellison’s personal fortune reached $39.5 billion, placing him fifth on Forbes’ list of global billionaires and the wealthiest Jew on the ranking at the time. His net worth has since expanded dramatically, surpassing $400 billion briefly in 2025 amid a surge in Oracle’s stock value.

Ellison has been married and divorced four times. He married Adda Quinn in 1967, divorcing in 1974; Nancy Wheeler Jenkins in 1977, divorcing the following year; and Barbara Boothe from 1983 to 1986, with whom he had two children, David and Megan, who entered the film industry. His fourth marriage, to novelist Melanie Craft, lasted from 2003 until their divorce in 2010.

Ellison’s career combines entrepreneurial innovation with risk-taking and resilience. His role in commercializing relational databases revolutionized information management for businesses worldwide. Beyond Oracle, his high-profile investments, philanthropic efforts, and personal pursuits—from yacht racing to ownership of the Hawaiian island of Lanai—have cemented his reputation as one of the most influential figures in modern technology and Jewish-American life.

Sources: “Larry Ellison,” Biography.
“Larry Ellison,” Britannica.
“Larry Ellison,” Forbes.
Avery Hartmans, Jordan Hart, Lakshmi Varanasi, Lian Kit Wee, Ana Altchek, “Larry Ellison is $67 billion richer this year. His career spans software, Hollywood, and yacht racing.” Business Insider, (December 30, 2024).
Grace Gilson, “Larry Ellison, Jewish Oracle CEO, briefly tops list as world’s richest man,” JTA, (September 11, 2025).

Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Oracle Corporate Communications