Vishal Sikka joins Oracle's board of directors

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who recently launched his AI startup Vianai Systems, has been nominated to the board of directors of global technology major Oracle.

Sikka, 52, is among the world's leading experts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, and would be helping Oracle in the business value and adapt to change, Oracle said in a statement.

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"Vishal is one the world's leading experts in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, said Oracle chairman and CTO Larry Ellison, announcing Sikka's addition to the Board of Directors.

Before starting Vianai, Sikka was a top executive at SAP and the CEO of Infosys.

Ellison said that Sikka's expertise and experience makes him ideally suited to provide strategic vision and expert advice to Oracle and its customers.

"The digital transformation of an enterprise is enabled by the rapid adoption of modern cloud applications and technologies, said Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

"Vishal clearly understands how Oracle's Gen2 Cloud Infrastructure, Autonomous Database and Applications come together in the Oracle Cloud to help our customers drive business value and adapt to change," he said.

Sikka said that for years the Oracle database has been the heartbeat and lifeblood of every large and significant organisation in the world.

"Today, Oracle is the only one of the big four cloud companies that offers both Enterprise Application Suites and Secure Infrastructure technologies in a single unified cloud. Oracle's unique position in both applications and infrastructure paves the way for enormous innovation and growth in the times ahead," he said. "I am excited to have the opportunity to join the Oracle Board and be part of this journey," Sikka added.

In August, at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sikka gave a presentation to the NITI Aayog on how to expand the reach of AI to the Indian society in a very big way. Representatives of some 20 union ministries were present during his presentation on AI. This, he said, required creating necessary infrastructure to bring the talent through institutions, schools, and educational institutions, and the ability to do AI education at a large scale.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)

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