Top Oracle sales executive quits

Jay Nussbaum, executive vice president of Oracle Service Industries, is leaving after 10 years at the company to become a senior executive at another company that partners with Oracle, a company representative said. Nussbaum, one of a dozen executives who report directly to Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, oversaw sales, marketing and consulting in the government, education, health care, communications, utilities and financial industries.

The company representative said that Nussbaum--one of three sales executives for Oracle in North America--is leaving on amicable terms. The representative would not say which company Nussbaum is joining. His duties will be split among four other Oracle executives.

"I am pleased to announce that Jay will be joining one of our largest and most important partners in a very senior role," Ellison wrote in an e-mail to employees. "Jay built and leaves us with a deep management team that is well prepared for additional responsibilities."

Nussbaum, 58, will leave Oracle in the coming weeks, the representative said. Among the executives who will take over Nussbaum's duties is George Roberts, executive vice president of U.S. sales, who will take over communications and utilities.

Kevin Fitzgerald, senior vice president of sales for the public sector, will add higher education and health care sales to his list of duties. Keith Block, a senior vice president, will take on North American consulting operations. Steve Perkins, a senior vice president, will add the federal, state and local government duties.

Nussbaum becomes the latest high-level Oracle executive to leave the company in the past year and a half. Oracle President Ray Lane left in June 2000 to join powerful Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Executive Vice President Gary Bloom resigned in November 2000 to become chief executive of Veritas Software.