Despite Lawsuit, Hurd to Speak at Oracle's Annual Conference

Despite a pending lawsuit from his former employer, newly appointed Oracle president Mark Hurd is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at Oracle's OpenWorld 2010 conference later this month.

Hurd will take the stage in San Francisco at 8am on Sept. 20. The session, which is scheduled to conclude at 9:45am, also includes speeches from John Fowler, Oracle's executive vice president of systems, Edward Screven, Oracle's chief corporate architect, and Noriyuki Toyoki, corporate senior vice president of Fujitsu Limited. As a result, it remains to be seen if Hurd will say anything of substance or simply introduce his colleagues.

Hurd was named Oracle president on Monday after he was forced to resign as CEO of Hewlett-Packard amidst a sexual harrassment and expense report scandal. On Tuesday, HP sued Hurd, claiming that he violated a confidentiality agreement in accepting the Oracle job.

Hurd allegedly violated "his legal obligations and express contractual obligations owed to HP to affirmatively maintain the confidentiality of HP's trade secrets and confidential information," HP said in a federal filing (PDF) in a Santa Clara, Calif. court.

Hurd is also facing a suit from HP shareholders, who sued him and the company's board of directors for, among other things, gross mismanagement and waste of corporate assets.

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Chloe Albanesius

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I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

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Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

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