Raymond J. Lane

Raymond J. "Ray" Lane (born 26 December 1946) is an American business executive and strategist specializing in technology and finance. Lane is best known for assisting corporations with technology strategy, organizational development, team building, and sales and growth management.^[1]

Lane is best recognized for his organizational and go-to-market overhaul of the technology corporation Oracle, which led to an exponential increase in the company’s sales and stock price in the 1990s.^[2][3] He is cited as being the catalyst for “Oracle’s success, ‘past, present and future.’”^[2][3]

Lane is a Partner Emeritus at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a prominent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.^[4][5] He also serves as chairman of the board of Elance, a global online staffing platform, and is chairman of Aquion Energy.^[6][7][8] He is recognized for his investments in promising startup companies, including the development of enterprise technology and alternative energy.^[9][10][11]

Early life and education

Raymond Jay Lane was born on December 26, 1946 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.^[9][12] Lane grew up in rural western Pennsylvania where his father was employed as a design engineer for steel production plants.^[2][12][13] Lane was heavily influenced by his father, who had emerged from the Depression-era steel business as the first member of his family to go to college, graduating from Carnegie Mellon as a mechanical engineer.^[9][12]

Lane attended public schools, graduating from Moon High School in 1964.^[12][13] Wishing to follow in his father’s footsteps, Lane first pursued a collegiate career in aeronautical engineering at West Virginia University.^[12] He later changed his major and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in 1968.^[13][14]

Career

IBM

Shortly after graduating, Lane was recruited to IBM’s data processing division for a sales position.^[2][12] In 1969, Lane was drafted to the U.S. Army, assigned to the First Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. Because of his computer knowledge, he was made a systems analyst responsible for logistical computer systems. He completed two years of military service and resumed his career in 1971 at IBM, achieving top sales awards for three years and being promoted to a product manager responsible for large mainframe and storage systems in one of IBM’s largest regions.^[12]

EDS

After eight years with IBM, Lane was recruited by EDS, led at the time by Ross Perot.^[12] He was handed responsibility for a new division that provided services to large manufacturers, distributors, and retail and transportation companies.^[15] Lane honed his entrepreneurial and leadership skills running the nascent division for nearly four years.^[12]

Booz Allen Hamilton

In 1981 Lane accepted a Principal position with Booz Allen Hamilton in Chicago, where he helped build the Information Technology practice for that area.^[12][16] At Booz Allen, he helped senior leadership of major corporations develop information technology strategies.^[12] Lane became a partner in three years and a senior partner by 1986.^[12][16] He led the development of the firm’s first global Information Technology practice, which in the late '80s became known as ISG (Information Systems Group), one of two global functional practices, and four industry practices that were the firm’s primary organization.^[17] He sat on the firm’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors from 1987 to 1992.^[18] He established and led the firm’s information technology group worldwide.^[11][19]

Oracle

In 1992, Lane was recruited by Oracle Corporation to turn around the firm’s sales, service, consulting and marketing functions.^[2] He was named President of Oracle USA in June.^[20] Oracle, suffering from rapid growth in the late '80s without checks and balances on its customer practices, was also falling behind technologically.^[12] The rapid turnaround in the mid-90s, fueled by a new database technology, Oracle 7, and by Lane’s organization of sales and services at the company, led to the rise of Oracle’s business applications division.^[12][16][20] Apple founder Steve Jobs recalled that “Larry told me that 15 minutes into the meeting, he knew Ray was the only guy he had met who was near smart enough to run Oracle."^[2] In 1996, Lane was named the President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle.^[12][21] Under his leadership, along with Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Jeff Henley, Oracle expanded from 7,500 to 40,000 employees, defeating its main database rivals Sybase and Informix, to become the leader in the database industry while building major businesses in ERP Applications and consulting.^{[12][22][23][24]} In mid-2000, Lane suddenly left the company, leading to speculation Oracle's business needs had outgrown him.^[25]

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

In 2000, Lane accepted his current position with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.^[11][12] Lane’s work at KPCB has centered on investing in entrepreneurs that are disrupting enterprise technology and alternative energy arenas.^[11][26] As of 2013 Lane serves as a Partner Emeritus of Kleiner Perkins.^[11]

HP

Lane served as non-executive Chairman on Hewlett-Packard’s Board of Directors from 2010 to 2011, and as Executive Chairman from 2011 to 2013.^[27][28] During his tenure, Lane restructured the board to add seven new directors, replaced the short-tenured CEO Leo Apotheker, and led the placement of Meg Whitman, HP’s current CEO.^[27][28][29] Lane was chairman when HP decided to acquire Autonomy Corporation, a controversial acquisition that led him to step down as chairman, but remain on the current board of directors.^[29]

Tax Dispute

In 2013, it was reported that Lane was involved in a personal tax dispute.^[9] The case stemmed from a tax year 2000 audit that reviewed an investment in a tax strategy used by Lane’s advisors called POPS (Partnership Option Portfolio Securities) to offset a minority of Lane’s income.^[9][10] Lane agreed to settle in excess of $100 million.^[9][30][31]

On January 3, 2014 Lane filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, and BDO Seidman, LLP alleging that he had suffered damage as a result of their having designed an allegedly "fraudulent" tax shelter.^[32][33][34]

Personal life and interests

Lane has three children, Kristi, Kelley, and Kari, with his first wife, Donna.^[12] He is currently married to Stephanie (Herle) Lane, with whom he has two children, Raymond Jay Lane III (“RJay”) and Catherine Victoria (“Tori”).^[12][13][35]

Philanthropy

Lane’s philanthropic interests include work in higher education, the Special Olympics, and Cancer Research.^[36]

Lane currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University.^[1][37][38] He led the institution’s capital campaign and efforts to establish a Silicon Valley campus in 2002.^[1] In 2010, the Lanes funded the establishment of Carnegie Mellon’s Computational Biology program (The Lane Center for Computational Biology), which today is the Computational Biology Department, one of six degree-granting departments in the School of Computer Science.^[13][39] In 2015, the Lane Center for Computational Cancer Research was established within the department. Lane also funded a professorship chair in his father’s name which is currently held by Dr. Robert F. Murphy (computational biologist), head of the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon.^[13][40] Additionally, he is a benefactor to his alma mater, West Virginia University, where he sits on its Board of Governors.^[11] He chaired WVU’s “Building Greatness” capital campaign in the early 2000s.^[13] In September 2007, the Lanes made a $5 million contribution to the university’s Computer Science and Electrical Engineering programs, for which the university honored them by naming the department The Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.^[13][39]

Lane has served as Vice Chairman of Special Olympics International for several years.^[1][41] In October 2011, Ray and Stephanie funded the organization’s international expansion project, UNIFY, which unites school age youth with intellectual disabilities with their healthy counterparts.^[42]

Ray and Stephanie Lane are contributors to the American Cancer Society, and continually sponsor functions to raise additional funds.^[13][43] The Lanes initiated and funded the Stephanie H. Lane Cancer Research Network, a central service in the state of California to help cancer patients get information and treatment.^[13][42]

Recognition

• TechAmerica, “David Packard Lifetime Medal of Achievement,” 2011.^[4][26]
• Inducted into West Virginia University’s Business Hall of Fame (2003) Academy of Distinguished Alumni (2004) and the Order of the Vandalia (2005).^[14][44]
• Smithsonian Leadership Award for Collaborative Innovation, 2001.^[12]
• Kappa Sigma Man of the Year, 2000.^[45]
• Honorary Ph.D.’s, West Virginia University, Golden Gate University.^[4]
• West Virginia University, Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.^[13][39]
• Carnegie Mellon, Lane Department of Computational Biology.^[13][39]

External links

• Official Website

References