Billionaire AND Mechanic

Julian Guthrie’s new book catalogs the improbable path that brought together the billionaire, Larry Ellison and the radiator mechanic, Norbert Barjurin and their runs at the 2003, 2007 and 2010 America Cup.

With the amazing come from behind victory of the Oracle USA Team in this year’s Cup set alongside Oracle OpenWorld this week, I got a glimpse of Ellison, himself as mechanic.

Couple of weeks ago I had posted about the materials science, sensors, analytics, telemetry and wearable technology that the sailing has innovated. But the comeback has required some ingenious tweaking and nimble footwork

Russell Coutts, CEO of Team USA, tells the NY Times about the adjustments

“The guys on board changed a lot. For sure there was a use of the technology change where we manipulated the force or manipulated the balance of those forces, but the guys on board the boat changed their technique, so there’s this fantastic human element to this which really won the day in the end, which is great.”

John Fowler, described in a keynote with Thomas Kurian, and later in a breakout session with a few of us, the intensity Larry brings to the hardware and software side of the business. Intricate coordination of elements across the stack and an ambitious push to keep Moore’s Law going and double silicon performance every two years. Two of his slides below showed off recent Oracle engineering prowess.

Several folks bitched that Larry Ellison missed his second keynote to be at one of the pivotal races this week. If they only knew about the engineering this mechanic has also overseen on the other venture…