Richard Thomas, senior Oracle marketing cloud consultant, is an active member of our Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence chapter in Chicago. He understands that the distance between where he grew up and where he works is, for many, much further than a mere trip along the Dan Ryan Expressway into downtown Chicago.

"I'm from what I like to call the suburbs of Chicago where Black communities don't always have an opportunity to see a future where they can walk the halls of Willis Tower," he says, referring to his office in Chicago's signature skyscraper.

Through his volunteer work, Richard has seized the opportunity to contribute to our collective future, walking hand in hand with Black youth as they pursue a future where their potential is fully realized.

Ashley is a site reliability engineer, Navy veteran, and one of the first women ever enlisted aboard a US submarine. When she decided she was ready to be closer to home, she applied for a job at Oracle and was immediately impressed by our Veterans recruiter.

“She cared about my career, even before I decided to accept her offer,” Ashley remembers. “She wanted to know what I was looking for, where I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, and how she could help.”

When Ashley joined us she knew she had made the right career choice. “My military experience serves me really well at Oracle. I’m able to apply the same go-getting mindset.”

Kay was a member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) while pursuing her degree in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. While attending NSBE conferences and events, Kay gained the confidence she needed to pursue highly technical jobs from interacting with so many engineers who looked like her.

Today Kay is the Director of Database Product Management here at Oracle. In this role she focuses on developing technical strategy for cross-platform solutions centered around the Oracle Database by establishing key initiatives, infrastructure, and programs to enable Oracle customers to work more efficiently and get direct access to Oracle's Database technology in combination with Oracle's other platform solutions.

When asked why diversity is essential to Oracle’s success, Kay will tell you “without diverse ideas, solutions lose their richness.”

Raina has been leading a fulfilling career with Oracle for more than 24 years. As community leader for the Orlando Chapter of the Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence (ABLE), she’s passionate about sharing knowledge and helping others succeed.

“As Maya Angelou said, ‘When you know better, you do better.’ I use my lessons and experiences to encourage, uplift, and empower others just as my village did for me. This is what fuels my desire to give back to my community and to inspire others to do the same.”

When Black History Month comes around, she sees it as an opportunity to invite people of all backgrounds to learn more about her heritage. “It’s a time to reflect upon the sacrifices of our ancestors and to teach youth the power of knowledge and self-affirmation.”

As a self-taught programmer, Andre has been driving his IT career forward since high school. But even while working in a technical role, he found that he was being asked to make business decisions. This spurred him to add to his education.

With two degrees now in the bag, including an MBA from MIT, Andre’s business acumen has helped propel him into a senior director role at Oracle. Not content to stop his education there, he is now completing his doctoral studies at George Washington University.

“I’m currently running a large engineering organization where I’m able to apply my MBA and IT management skills, and I’m blending all this into a doctorate while I continue to build these world-class systems for Oracle,” Andre says.