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HP CEO Resigns During Sexual Harassment Investigation
A number of readers are letting us know that HP CEO Mark Hurd just resigned over sexual harassment accusations. The company's board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO. A contractor had accused Hurd of sexual harassment, and the board brought in outside counsel to investigate. While the harassment claim could not be substantiated, the investigation did uncover other misconduct. Hurd's "close personal relationship" with the contractor created a conflict of interest, and he was also found to have misused company assets. In a statement, Hurd said, "As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career."
Sounds like a classy guy, but sadly I'm guessing this is par for the course at this level of "leadership" in most companies.
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I realized ... I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that ... have guided me throughout my career."
Clearly the principles haven't been "guiding" him to within a tolerable deviance...
He "realized there were instances" of misconduct on his part? More like he realized he'd been caught.
"As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles..."
Thank goodness there was an investigation, so he could realize what he had done!
More like, at some point in the investigation he realized that he was busted and couldn't cover up or plausibly deny things. He was probably feeling pretty untouchable up to that point after coming out unscathed from the other little upset they had a while back.
Anyone else's skin crawl as they read the rehearsed and empty words? Reeks of a sociopath saying what he thinks folks want to hear to let him off the hook. Funny how many seem to make it to the top.
but sadly I'm guessing this is par for the course at this level of "leadership" in most companies.
Yeah but HP also had Carly who was forced to resign. Hopefully trouble doesn't come in 3's for HP.
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
And what info do we have on that golden parachute he will be receiving from HP?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
While it pains me to defend this piece of shit, the truth is that the pretexting was the handiwork of Patricia Dunn (chairwoman of HP board at the time), and the Hurd wasn't involved.
Now that the Hurd is abandonware, will HP contribute the source back tot he community?
I've been waiting for Gnu to deliver the Hurd for the last 20 years, and this might be enough to get them over the hump.
...would like their good names back, now.
After what Carly Fiorina did to H-P, and the nation, and now this tool...hell, I remember when "hp" on the logo meant the very best in quality, not scandal and treason...
Hurd was released?!? link plz!
The Admin and the Engineer
I find it hilarious/scary that whenever a CxO gets caught doing something stupid/criminal, the defense is always ignorance. These weasels who get paid more in a day than I get paid in a year suddenly become the most oblivious, ignorant, and stupid morons in the world when they are being investigated for wrongdoing.
It wasn't until the middle of the investigation that he realized he did something wrong? *retch*
Possible scenario:
He hires a mistress / "marketing" contractor.
Takes her on "fact-finding trips" in a company jet.
Dumps her / stops paying.
She sues for "harassment."
Board figures out the real story and lets him "resign"... in the meantime, they quietly pay off the mistress in return for her not filing suit. (Once you've gone public and filed suit with a high-profile case like this, you've just pissed away your best bargaining chips, which involve sweeping under the rug.)
If I was HP's board, I would not have let him resign; he would have been fired on the spot. Although I admit to being surprised that they didn't ham-handedly cover up the story; perhaps they learned their lesson with the wiretap fiasco from several years ago.
SirWired
No, that kind of casing is for products less than 100 cm^3 only. Anything bigger doesn't need protective casing since there's no possible rearrangement of particles that could make it any less useful.
It's not the title that's cursed, its the reputation of a once-great company repeatedly getting abused and taken for granted by those chosen to lead it.
Here's to hoping the board has better judgment when choosing the next one. Their track record so far (Carly, and now this) isn't exactly inspiring.
SirWired
Had this been a "rank and file" employee, the said employee would've been escorted out of the building on the same day, no severance. Instead we get this loop that's just going to go lay low for a few months then move on and pull the same shit again, till caught... (rinse and repeat.)
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I wonder what kind of golden parachute the board paid to make him go away quietly?
According to CNN, he could make $53 million in severance pay.
Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
Posting this anonymously since I work for HP.
Seems Mark violated the Standarts of Business Conduct (SBC). Every new employee has to study the SBC and every year these is a mandatory training on understanding this document. It kind of discredits both the SBC and the trainings if the CEO breaks his own rules.
Oh, and I hope they will find a new CEO who actually understands how technology works. Mark was not much better than Carly - HP now hardly does any serious R&D (except for HP Labs which actually does pretty cool stuff), preferring to buy established companies.
As an employee of HP, good riddance. The company's employees have been treated like dirt for at least the past two years. I don't think there is one person who sits within 50 feet of me who isn't actively job hunting. Sexual harassment is just one of his many offenses.
In Las Vegas, that type of contractor is called an "escort."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
While Hurd himself has proven to be yet another spineless idiot with no moral compass, the General Counsel did not mince words:
(From CNET)
-----
Holston said the company's investigation revealed that the contractor had received compensation and incorrect expense reimbursement from Hurd as part of his attempt to conceal his relationship with her.
HP's board was notified of the matter after receiving a letter from the outside contracting firm on June 29. HP conducted an investigation with outside investigators and concluded that Hurd's conduct "exhibited a profound lack of judgment," according to Holston.
The amount of expenses involved is not material to HP, according to Holston. "The facts that drove the decision for the company had to do with integrity, with credibility, and honesty," he told investors on a call Friday.
----
For a corporate press release, this is practically ten-magaton nuclear anger. The only time I've seen something close is bankrupt corrupt company trying to throw the old CEO under the bus while trying to worm out of a shareholder lawsuit.
It only takes ONE "contractor" like this in a company to totally discredit any other incoming women, no matter how many times over they can prove that their technical qualifications and achievements were earned fair and square. People won't even bother to find out. They'll just *assume* she got her grades, degrees, honors and awards on her back, got men to do her homework for her, "managed" to take credit for other peoples' work in all other previous work experience, and just happens to "know what the words mean." Except that the a-hole men on the project will simply not listen, assume she's "got it all wrong" and then have to find out the hard way what her point was -- when the little boys walk right into typical traps for young players that she'd warned them about .... having more experience.
"contractors" like this piss me off even more than ethically-impaired sociopaths like Hurd. And for a *prostitute* like that to scream "sexual harassment" when he gets tired of her just makes a mockery of *real* cases of sexual harassment, which sorry -- goes on ALL the time.
He can have a consensual relationship all he wants, (I never recall a CEO getting fired over an affair) but HP found him using company funds for this relationship. That crosses the line into misconduct worthy of firing. It's perfectly legal to have a mistress, and not something a CEO is going to get fired over. But he should have paid for the whole fling out of his own pocket; too many CEOs treat the company treasury as their piggy bank. As if their outsize salaries aren't big enough already...
And apologizing to the managers and employees would be appropriate here; nothing steams employees more than executives only paying lip service to a company's "values." The non-apology wasn't worth the paper it was written on. (It wasn't until he was investigated that it dawned on him it was wrong? *blech*)
It wasn't harassment because she probably agreed to the whole deal (likely up until the point he decided to dump her.)
Oh, and the "no panic" plan doesn't seem to be working. HP is down 10% in after-hours trading. (Which makes sense... an abrupt CEO transition from an executive that by all accounts was doing a good job is going to be tough.)
Mark Hurd's bio disappeared from HP's site:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/bios/hurd.html
His motto was:
"Everything we do must be for the customer. If it's not, then we need to reconsider why we're doing it."
http://web.archive.org/web/20071226095057/http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/bios/hurd.html
He should have tried to respect it...
People have been saying that for a long time. Of course, they've also been saying "Steve Ballmer, get your hands out of the crack of your ass... and stop smelling them!"
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
He was during the end of the pretexting scandal. The practice started under Carly Fiorina. At the time, he said he wasn't aware of it and he was believed. This time, his guilt was undeniable.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I can't seem to remember ANY employee of a tech company that had anything good to say about the company they work for...
Well Done, Sarcastic Boy!
Now, off to the Alliteration Mobile!
Nanananannanana
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
HP stock dropped 4% the day Hurd's departure was announced, whereas is shot up 6.9% (at one point it was up 10.5%) the day Fiorina's departure was announced. Larry Ellison has repeated been accused of sexually harassing, then paying off his personal secretaries, but he's still CEO of Oracle... go figure. Charles Phillips, president of Oracle, screwed around on his wife for years, finally concluding in a Billboard in Times Square, but no impact to his career. I guess it just depends on which company you work for...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Carly was ousted for staggering incompetence, not misconduct. HP's stock shot up 6.9% the day Carly's departure was announced, whereas it dropped 4% when Hurd's departure was announced. In other words, stockholders felt Hurd was good for HPs value, but Fiorina was not.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I can't seem to remember ANY employee of a tech company that had anything good to say about the company they work for...
I just want to preemptively get this in:
Google is not a tech company - they're an ad agency.
Wow, a 53 million dollar reward for sexual harassment, theft, and other misconduct to horrifying to speak aloud. Friends we are in the wrong goddamn industry.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Actually, only the attractive female contractors will be assumed to have slept their way to the top. The butt-ugly ones will still be presumed to have some skills. For the record, I have worked with women that were both very attractive (to the point of distracting me from my work) and extremely competent and hard working. But I've also worked with a contractor who literally got her job because she was sleeping with another contractor, who then became her boss. This same female contractor then complained when a junior employee made a comment about preferring a blond for the next hire -- fucking hypocrite!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
$50e6 probably sounds very reasonable when you're accustomed to making $30e6 every year. It's funny, how small must have his fraudulent expenses been, compared to being paid over $100K every single work day. He probably feels like he just got fired for going home with an HP ballpoint pen in his pocket.
you don't consider EDS, 3COM and palm a spending spree ???
holly jeebus in a pogo stick, man! the guy spent nearly 20 giga dolars on those. i bet carly is proud of him (except for the harrasment thingy, of course)
What ? Me, worry ?
They wanted to be able to say, "No, your Honor, we didn't say we were pretexting, we said we were Pre texting."
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
Gosh, his corporate picture is terrifying! He's combing hair over from his right ear (as we look at it), adding various bits of hair, to pretend he isn't balding!
WIG! WIG!
--- Band: Joey Ultra
Don't hate the player, hate the game... and all the feminists who demanded the rules be written in the favor of the exact type of woman who undermines feminist principles of autonomy, and a self-sufficient women of equal standing.
They created a legal situation that creates huge financial incentives for women to sleep their way to the top.
The name of the game is:
Seduce one superior after another until the ruse is up: then sue for sexual harassment and when the coke/plastic surgery money runs out: sweep it under the rug so that the next unsuspecting human resources manager will hire the affirmative action queen.
Meanwhile: cynical opportunists write op ed pieces about needing more women in the sciences, effectively keeping the game alive.
Meanwhile, chauvinist pigs such as myself crack jokes about the entire thing, and create a culture hostile to women. Effectively creating the "glass ceiling" professional failures that don't know the correct way to advance their careers love to bitch about. They demand Standards of Business Conduct, internal complaint processes, and sexual harassment laws effectively completing the cycle.
it's slashdot, you aren't in the computer industry?
I think the GPP was talking about the CEO industry, which is quite separate from the industry of any company the CEO happens to be running at the moment. It's really bizarre how successful the business model is: tell people what to do, even when what you tell them to do is quite clearly contrary to their own interests and the interests of the company, and they give you gobs of money for it; then when they finally get sick of doing all the stupid and counterproductive things you've been telling them to do, they give you even more money on your way out the door.
Imagine, if, oh, say, plumbing worked that way.
"Hi, is this Joe's Plumbing? My toilet's leaking, what should I do?"
"Okay, what you need to do is turn off your water, disconnect the toilet, and then turn the water back on."
"Um ... shouldn't I connect a new toilet first?"
"No, trust me, it'll be fine."
"Great, thanks! Here's my Visa card number ... Okay, hold on a minute, let me try this ... now I've got water gushing out of my bathroom and flooding all over my house!"
"Sorry, can't be helped. That just happens sometimes."
"You're incompetent! I'm going to call another plumber who knows what the hell he's talking about! Oh, and before I hang up, here's my Mastercard number too."
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Except at the executive level where it's actually needed.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Here's the thing that gets me: Why do I see the headlines on Google News, CNet and CNN hours before it's on Slashdot? I remember (not too long ago even) when /. would have articles out far in advance of mainstream media.
I started working for HP shortly after Carly came in, and I had the privilege to work with a number of 30+ year HP employees. They had worked for (and in several cases personally met) Bill and Dave and they had nothing but praise for them. They also had an amazing loyalty to the company - a loyalty that took one beating after another under Carly's leadership.
Maybe you're right that no employee of a tech company has anything good to say these days, but it wasn't the case at HP for many years.
As to the current situation, I know a number of people that still work there and they are miserable - far more so than when I left 5 years ago. Things were tough when I left, but it sounds like they've gotten far worse over time.
Custom, hands-free Linux installs. Instalinux
They should have known that Hurd is unstable
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
These days, the packaging is built like a tank's.
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
That was when they were engineering products instead of marketing commodities.
The first is obviously Mark committing theft, probably grand theft. The second is the board failing in their fudiciary as usual. If the board did what they are charged with doing, Mark would have been told, either resign and get nothing or we take you to court on grand theft charges. Yes you can sue us for your contract spoils, but do enjoy what money can buy in the slammer. I'm pretty sure grand theft is over a year, and in cali that means wonderful places like san quentin are an option. But of course the board rolled over as usual and the shareholders get screwed for 28M. It is just sick what happens in the boardroom. H&P would be puking right now.
Speculation: for there to be a sexual harassment case, there must have been a complaint, which tells me that the lady in question was not happy with Mr. Hurd. She would also be aware of the misuse of expenses, something to be used against him if needed ... so a sexual harassment complaint might be swept under the carpet, but misuse of expenses would be taken a bit more seriously. Lawyers can more easily sink their teeth that kind of complaint. In my estimation, that is.
I can't talk about current HP culture, since I left there about three years ago to go to university. I was wondering whether I had made the right choice, whether I'd have been better off staying. Financially, sure, but in terms of general quality of life ... nah.
(this is not a
The president gets blowjobs from an intern and he doesn't have to resign; the CEO did something similar and he has to resign.
The president didn't force or even coerce anyone to suck his dick. He only lied about it under oath, and it was a question being asked to try to establish something about allegedly nonconsensual sexual advances, meaning that it never should have been asked as it was irrelevant to the case, and asking the question was a political act.
Hope this helps.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"