May 18 2007
Talkin’ to Larry
Just back after a very short trip over to Valencia to talk to Oracle's Big Cheese Mr Ellison, who held court for about two hours on his yacht. Of course he's out in Spain as part of the preparation for the America's Cup where they've not had much luck in recent races. The New Zealand team is ahead of them by one point. For the second time, I was on Rising Sun, Ellison's ginormous personal yacht, very beautiful if a bit austere (I mean my own house has never been that clean; it doesn't really feel as if anyone lives there, at least on the two decks that I saw, but it is stunning). The outdoor basketball court is still there, I was pleased to see. Apparently if a ball goes over the side, someone is sent after it. Anyway it was as always an interesting interview; say what you like about Larry (and lots of people do and will) he consistently does engaging discussions and you don't tend to get canned answers. He is also very accessible and seems to actually enjoy sparring with the hacks -- but then, this is a man who always takes questions from the floor from customers, anything they want to ask, after his keynotes. Not many CEOs are that brave (or foolhardy, some might have it!).
Being on our own last night, a group of us tech hacks found a Spanish restaurant near our hotel and had some enormous and delicious platters of paella and a very nice red wine from the region, chosen by the Italian among us (it was either him, or the French journalist -- I've learned to leave wine decisions up to those nationalities whenever possible). It was a long and leisurely evening, fast service not being a goal of the Spaniards. This morning, after too little sleep, the Scandinavians and I caught a taxi to the airport and two flights later, I'm back in rainy Dublin from the 24 degree balmy weather of Spain.
5 responses so far
Oohoo look who gets personal invites to Ellisons yacht..
Fancypants!
E.
LOL Not very personal when it included 17 others and comes through the communications division, but it was fun to be on a yacht the length of a football field (literally). That’s one heck of a carbon footprint though.
The geek inside me wants to know what operating system the yacht runs on… Did you spot any cool tech.
Not bad though…
E.
Not a computer in sight on board! I did go use the downstairs bathroom though which required going down a flight of glass steps and past the private home cinema room with comfy couches and big screen, then into a very odd round (well it was 6 or 8 sided I think) bathroom where the toilet was directly opposite a floor to ceiling mirror. Not the typical view and you feel rather… exposed. I was actually on the yacht once before three years ago, which was a surprise as he’d never allowed public access of any sort. Really threw the PR people with us who were expecting the briefing to be back on shore in Oracle/BMW team’s boat/warehouse in the harbour.
The yacht has very nice teak and cream fabric furniture, an indoor table seating 20 (in addition to one around the same size outside), a grand piano, nice artwork and shelves with a glass vase collection (not exactly the thing for stormy seas).