HP CEO resigns amid sexual harassment accusations
By Alexis • Aug 10th, 2010 • Category: Industry News- Photo: jdlasica / Flickr
Well this came out of left field! HP CEO Mark Hurd resigned after a contract employee filed a claim of sexual harassment against him. CFO Cathie Lesjak has stepped up to fill his shoes in the interim while the company looks for a replacement CEO.
Jodie Fisher outs him
Though it was initially unclear who had accused Hurd of the harassment, actress Jodie Fisher from NBC’s Age of Love has since stepped forward to say it was she who blew the whistle on Hurd. She was quick to say that she never intended to see the HP CEO fired (forced to resign is the term), and that they never actually had sex.
What many have gathered is that they went out and shared a few meals together, but what Hurd actually did to warrant a sexual harassment charge – outside of too much direct contact with a contractor – is still vague.
Who’s next?
The big question, of course, is who will replace Mark Hurd as the chief at Hewlett Packard. A scout team has been assembled to look for a suitable replacement.
Many names have been thrown around both internally and externally. Our two notable longshots are Internet entrepreneur come venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who happens to sit on HP’s board already, with the other notable candidate being John Rubenstein, CEO at Palm before HP acquired the company, as well as a notable former Apple executive. Regardless of who replaces Hurd seeing the HP CEO fired (sorry, forced to resign) for such irresponsible conduct is silly.
What of HP’s business
The company was quick to point out that the HP CEO departing would have no material effect on the business, so much so that they revised their forecasted earnings upwards for the quarter. While we think for HP’s core printer and computer business it should be business as usual, it’ll be interesting to see how this disruption affects the business as HP expands into tablet computing and mobile telephony, too, through its Palm acquisition.
Tags for this article: computer, hp
