Raymond J. Lane (born December 26, 1946) is an American business executive and strategist specializing in technology and finance. Lane is best known for assisting corporations with

technology strategy Technology strategy (information technology strategy or IT strategy) is the overall plan which consists of objectives, principles and tactics relating to use of technologies within a particular organization. Such strategies primarily focus on the ...

team building Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business ...

, and sales and growth management. Lane led a "

go to market Go-to-market or go-to-market strategy is the plan of an organization, utilizing their outside resources (e.g. sales force and distributors), to deliver their unique value proposition to customers and achieve competitive advantage. The end goal is ...

" overhaul of Oracle Corporation, which led to an increase in sales and stock price in the 1990s. He is cited as being the catalyst for "Oracle's success, ‘past, present and future.’" Lane is a partner emeritus at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. He managed

investments Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

and held board membership in startup companies, including the development of enterprise technology and alternative energy.

Early life and education

Raymond Jay Lane was born on December 26, 1946, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Lane grew up in rural western Pennsylvania where his father was employed as a

design engineer A design engineer is an engineer focused on the engineering design process in any of the various engineering disciplines (including civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, textiles, aerospace, nuclear, manufacturing, systems, and structural ...

for steel production plants. Lane was heavily influenced by his father, who had emerged from the

Depression-era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

steel business as the first member of his family to go to college, graduating from

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name *Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyte ...

as a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

. Lane attended public schools, graduating from Moon High School in 1964. Wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, Lane first pursued a collegiate career in

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

(WVU). He later changed his major and graduated with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in mathematics in 1968.

Career

IBM

Shortly after graduating, Lane was recruited to IBM's data processing division for a sales position. In 1969, Lane was drafted to the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, assigned to the 1st Infantry Division at

Fort Riley, Kansas Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, on the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 101,733 acres (41,170 ha) in Gea ...

. 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 A product manager (PM) is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the product strategy behind a product (physical or digital), ...

responsible for large mainframe and storage systems in one of IBM's largest regions.

EDS

After eight years with IBM, Lane was recruited by Electronic Data Systems (EDS), led at the time by Ross Perot. He was handed responsibility for a new division that provided services to large manufacturers, distributors, and retail and transportation companies. Lane ran the nascent division for nearly four years.

Booz Allen Hamilton

In 1981 Lane accepted a principal position with

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American management and information technology consulting firm, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in Greater Washington, D.C., with 8 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. At Booz Allen, he helped develop

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...

strategies. Lane became a partner in three years and a

senior partner A partner in a law firm, accounting firm, consulting firm, or financial firm is a highly ranked position, traditionally indicating co-ownership of a partnership in which the partners were entitled to a share of the profits as "equity partners". Th ...

by 1986. He led the development in the late 1980s of became known as Information Systems Group, one of two functional practices, and four industry practices that were the firm's primary organization. He sat on the firm's executive committee and board of directors from 1987 to 1992.

Oracle

In 1992, Lane was recruited by Oracle Corporation to turn around the firm's sales, service, consulting and marketing, and named president of Oracle USA in June. Oracle, suffering from rapid growth in the late '80s without checks and balances on its customer practices, was also falling behind technologically. 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.

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

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." In 1996, Lane was named the president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

of Oracle. Under his leadership, along with

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...

and Jeff Henley, Oracle expanded from 7,500 to 40,000 employees, defeating its main database rivals Sybase and

Informix IBM Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Informix Corporation, whose ...

, to become the leader in the database industry while building major businesses in ERP applications and consulting. In mid-2000, Lane suddenly left the company, leading to speculation Oracle's business needs had outgrown him.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

In 2000, Lane accepted a position with

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

. Lane's work at KPCB centered on enterprise technology and alternative energy. As of 2013 Lane became partner emeritus of Kleiner Perkins. He serves as chairman of the board of

Elance Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk, after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merg ...

, an online staffing platform, and of

Aquion Energy Aquion Energy was a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.-based company that manufactured sodium ion batteries ( salt water batteries) and electricity storage systems. The company claimed to provide a low-cost way to store large amounts o ...

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. Lane restructured the board to add seven new directors, replaced the short-tenured CEO Leo Apotheker, and led the placement of

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

as CEO. Lane was chairman when HP decided to acquire

Autonomy Corporation HP Autonomy, previously Autonomy Corporation PLC, was an enterprise software company which was merged with Micro Focus in 2017. It was founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1996. Autonomy was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in October 201 ...

, a controversial acquisition that led him to step down as chairman, but remain on the board of directors.

GreatPoint Ventures

Lane currently serves as a Managing Partner at GreatPoint Ventures, a venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Tax dispute

In 2013, it was reported that Lane was involved in a personal tax dispute. 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. Lane agreed to settle in excess of $100 million. 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.

Personal life and philanthropy

Lane has three children, Kristi, Kelley, and Kari, with his first wife, Donna. He is married to Stephanie (Herle) Lane, with whom he has two children, Raymond Jay Lane III ("RJay") and Catherine Victoria ("Tori"). Lane's philanthropic interests include work in higher education, the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

, and

Cancer Research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...

. Lane serves as the chairman of the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. He led the institution's capital campaign and efforts to establish a

campus in 2002. In 2010, the Lanes funded the Carnegie Mellon's Computational Biology program (The Lane Center for Computational Biology), which is the

Computational Biology Department The Computational Biology Department (CBD) is a division within the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Gates-Hillman Center. Established in 2007 by Robert ...

, one of six degree-granting departments in the School of Computer Science. In 2015, th
Lane Center for Computational Cancer Research
was established within the department. Lane also funded a professorship chair in his father's name held by

Robert F. Murphy (computational biologist) Robert F. Murphy iand Director of thM.S. Program in Automated Scienceat Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to his retirement in May 2021, he was the Ray and Stephanie Lane Professor of Computational Biology as well as Professor of Biological Scien ...

. Additionally, he is a benefactor to his alma mater, West Virginia University, where he sits on its

board of governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

. He chaired a WVU capital campaign in the early 2000s. 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. Lane has served as vice chairman of Special Olympics International for several years. 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. Ray and Stephanie Lane are contributors to the American Cancer Society, and sponsor functions to raise additional funds. 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. As of 2019, Lane is an advisor for Inxeption, a California-based technology platform.

Recognition

TechAmerica TechAmerica is a United States technology trade association. It was formed from the merger of AeA (formerly known as the America Electronics Association), the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA), the Government Electronics & Information Techno ...

, "David Packard Lifetime Medal of Achievement," 2011. * Inducted into West Virginia University's Business Hall of Fame (2003) Academy of Distinguished Alumni (2004) and the Order of the Vandalia (2005). * Smithsonian Leadership Award for Collaborative Innovation, 2001. *

Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and col ...

Man of the Year, 2000. * Honorary Ph.D.'s, West Virginia University,

Golden Gate University Golden Gate University (GGU or Golden Gate) is a private university in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1901, GGU specializes in educating professionals through its schools of law, business, taxation, and accounting. The university offers s ...

. * West Virginia University, Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. * Carnegie Mellon, Lane Center for Computational Cancer Research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Raymond J. 1946 births Living people American computer businesspeople Carnegie Mellon University trustees Booz Allen Hamilton people West Virginia University alumni Kleiner Perkins people