Sohaib Abbasi

Sohaib Abbasi
Sohaib Abbasi
Born	August 14, 1956 (age 70); Lahore, Pakistan
Occupation(s)	Business executive, computer scientist, philanthropist
Years active	1980–present
Known for	CEO and chairman of Informatica (2004–2015), executive at Oracle Corporation

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Sohaib Abbasi, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 1 December 2025

Sohaib Abbasi (born August 14, 1956) is a Pakistani–American business executive, computer scientist, and philanthropist. He held the positions of chairman and CEO at Informatica between 2004 and 2015.

Prior to that, Abbasi was a member of the executive committee at Oracle Corporation, where he served as senior vice president overseeing Oracle Tools and Oracle Education. He retired from Oracle in 2003 after dedicating two decades to the company.

In 2011, Abbasi joined the board of directors at software firm Red Hat Inc.. Later, in May 2016, he became a board member of San Francisco-based analytics company New Relic. By August 2017, he had joined the board of StreamSets, Inc, a DataOps enterprise headquartered in San Francisco.

Early life and education

Born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1956, Abbasi experienced frequent relocations during his childhood due to his father’s career as an air force officer. In 1974, he moved to the United States to pursue higher education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He graduated with honors, earning a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1978, followed by a master's degree in 1980.

Early career

Abbasi started his professional journey in 1980 as a product manager at Professional Computer Resources, where he developed financial modeling and ERP software solutions. Subsequently, he founded Outlook Software, Inc.

Oracle

Abbasi joined Oracle during its early years in 1982. Initially responsible for managing Midwestern Sales, he later became director of Oracle's inaugural application programming tool, SQL*Forms, which launched in 1985. By 1990, SQL*Forms was adopted by more than 90% of Oracle DBMS clients. Abbasi led Oracle’s software tools division, managing areas such as application development, business intelligence, e-business portals, and other related tools. His career advanced as he was promoted to vice-president of Tools and Multi-media in 1989 and then senior vice-president of the Tools Product Division in 1994. From 2001 until his retirement in 2003 after twenty years at Oracle, he served as senior vice president overseeing both Tools and Education divisions.

Informatica

In 2004, Abbasi assumed the role of CEO at Informatica, taking charge of a company experiencing negative product license growth in ten out of the previous twelve quarters. He restructured operations by reducing efforts on analytic application software development and concentrating on the data warehousing market segment. Although initially met with resistance from employees and board members, Abbasi successfully redirected the company’s focus toward a more streamlined product portfolio. Under his guidance, Informatica continued to expand even during the economic downturn, maintaining hiring momentum and growth. By 2010, the company reported revenues of $650 million.

After a decade under his leadership, Informatica achieved $1 billion in revenue in 2014. In April 2015, shareholders approved a $5.3 billion acquisition by Permira funds along with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at an approximate price of $48 per share. Following completion of this transaction, Abbasi stepped down from his CEO position but retained his role as chairman.

Philanthropy

In 2003, Abbasi and his wife Sara established a $2.5 million endowment to support an Islamic studies program at Stanford University. This fund aids fellowships, research initiatives, library resources, language instruction, and lecture series. Stanford alumna Lysbeth Warren contributed an additional $2 million toward creating a professorship focused on Islam; both Stanford University and the Hewlett Foundation matched these donations to bring the total endowment to $9 million.

The couple also founded the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professorship along with a Computer Science Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign designed to assist students—especially those from Pakistan.

Abbasi played a key role in initiating the Oracle Academic Initiative in Pakistan, which has trained hundreds of IT professionals.

Recognition

Throughout his leadership at Informatica, Abbasi received numerous accolades. In 2010, he was honored with the Chairman of the Year Award by the American Business Awards and secured the second position in Institutional Investor's yearly ranking of software CEOs for both 2010 and 2011. Bloomberg ranked him as the second most influential technology leader in their 2013 Top 20 list. Additionally, in 2014, Forbes recognized him as one of the top five CEOs to work for within the Enterprise Software industry.