Oracle, Set for Clinton Speech, Insists No Board Seat Offered

Oracle Corp., which will feature former President Clinton as a speaker at its trade show next week, quelled speculation Thursday that this meant he had been approached to serve on the board of the world’s second-largest software company.

“There’s been no discussion with Bill Clinton about his coming to the Oracle board,” Oracle spokeswoman Jennifer Glass said.

Clinton is scheduled as the keynote speaker at a major Oracle trade show Monday in New Orleans, an engagement that touched off speculation that he could be in line to take a seat on the board.

Oracle has not disclosed how much it is paying Clinton for the engagement, but he reportedly commands $100,000 per speech and the company’s payment is “in line with other speaker fees he’s received,” Glass said.

In November, Oracle Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison hired former White House chief spokesman Joe Lockhart as the company’s communications director, which has prompted speculation that the company is courting Clinton for a board post.

Jack Kemp, the former Republican congressman from New York who ran unsuccessfully for vice president in 1996, already serves on the Oracle board.

Clinton, whose controversial pardons and keeping of gifts upon leaving office have made his speaking engagements touchy affairs, is hailed as “the first high-tech president” in an Oracle press release on the coming speech.

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. apologized to clients and shareholders who objected to Clinton’s appearance at a company event in Florida. Investment bank UBS Warburg reportedly broke off talks to hire the former president after word that a senior UBS executive had lobbied for a pardon for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich, which Clinton granted on his final day in office.

Oracle spokeswoman Glass said public and shareholder opinion on the Clinton speech had been sharply divided.

“We got a lot of calls and e-mails from all kinds of people, both pro and con. People feel very strongly about this,” she said.

The Oracle board includes Ellison, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Henley and six outside directors.

Raymond Lane, Oracle’s former president and chief operating officer, left the company in June, creating an opening on the board.