Oracle FY26 Kickoff: What Happens in Orlando…
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for June 15, 2025
Monday morning I woke up and flew to Orlando for four nights in the blazing Florida heat. It was the start of a packed week of meetings, nonstop networking, and figuring out where the heck I was supposed to be next. As usual, the flight in hit heavy turbulence—something about Florida air just wants to shake you up. I used a Navy SEAL breathing trick I learned from ChatGPT to keep my cool. Didn’t cry. Much.
Monday night started our FY26 Oracle NACI Sales kickoff event with dinner and laughs alongside my manager and teammates. It was our first big in-person gathering since Covid—and with more than 2,000 people in attendance, this ended up being the only time I saw most of my team all week. Still, it was a great way to kick off the chaos.
More than 2,000 of us from NACI—North America Cloud Infrastructure—packed into Orlando as Oracle dropped its FY25 results. Cloud Infrastructure hit $3.0B in Q4 alone, up 52% YoY. Leadership was fired up, and the message was clear: great job… now go out and top it.
We all roll up to Mark Hura, EVP of North America Cloud Infrastructure—and frankly, it's hard not to get fired up when you hear him speak. With AI driving record demand for OCI, and leadership that’s both sharp and grounded, it feels like we’re sitting in the eye of the perfect tech storm… in the best way possible.
Eventually, we split into org breakouts. My team rolls up to Chris Gandolfo, EVP of North America OCI & AI Sales. He’s been at the center of Oracle’s biggest AI infrastructure wins. It’s genuinely exciting to be on this ride—feels like the rocket just cleared the launchpad and no one really knows how high we’re going to fly.
There’s a crew of behind-the-scenes geniuses who make our team meetings feel like primetime TV, and for our in-person event, they went full Hollywood. The year-end awards are called The Larrys—yes, really—and my teammate Annie Bair took home multiple trophies. Total rockstar.
Of course, not all of our time was spent in conference rooms. We were in Orlando, after all. One night they turned us loose for a partner-hosted pub crawl through Disney Springs—which is like Epcot for grownups, but with more cocktails and fewer screaming children. We drank, we mingled, and not once did anyone ask us to pose with a giant mouse. A magical evening indeed.
During our final session, we heard directly from Oracle founder Larry Ellison—on the same day he became the second richest person in the world, thanks to Oracle’s incredible earnings and the stock surge that followed. He told us, “Demand is astronomical… we’ve never seen anything like this.” It wasn’t just inspiring—this is one of those rare moments when you realize you’re part of something truly transformational.
Saturday’s fishing trip with Jen and Dan got sunk by the weather—too cold, too crappy—but we pivoted like pros and hit lunch instead. No fish were harmed, but some burgers didn’t make it. Always good to catch up, even if it’s with fries instead of lines.
Sunday was Father’s Day, so we celebrated with Grandma Linda and the kids over lunch at Benihana. The food was incredible, the gifts were thoughtful, and I’m still recovering from how full I got. Nothing better than being surrounded by family—unless it’s being surrounded by family and chicken fried rice.
Happy Father’s Day to all you legends out there!
