HP Reshuffles Board, Names Five New Directors

The incoming directors are Shumeet Banerji, CEO of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, former CIO of GE and a current special advisor to private equity firm General Atlantic; Patricia Russo, former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay, who failed last November in her bid to become the next governor of California.

"The addition of these new directors will further diversify the outstanding talents and wide-ranging experience that our directors already bring to HP," said Raymond J. Lane, non-executive chairman of HP's board of directors, in a statement issued Wednesday.

The outgoing HP directors are Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany. Hyatt and Joyce joined HP's board in 2007, Ryan joined in 2004 and Salhany joined in 2002.

Lane thanked the departing directors for their guidance during the period after Hurd resigned as HP CEO last August after an internal sexual harassment investigation found evidence of violations of the company's Standards Of Conduct.

"These directors worked tirelessly and effectively to navigate HP through a difficult leadership change in the last six months," Lane said in a statement. Lane, former managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, joined HP Nov.1 along with HP CEO Leo Apotheker.

HP's share price plummeted in the wake of Hurd's Aug.6 resignation, shaving off billions in market valuation and triggering a class action lawsuit from shareholders over the size of Hurd's $12.2 million severance package.

HP's board was vilified by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and former GE CEO Jack Welch for its handling of the Mark Hurd sexual harassment scandal, with Welch describing HP's board as "somewhat dysfunctional."

Given that Hurd was guilty of misconduct, many shareholders questioned whether he should have received any sort of severance. In conjunction with the shareholder lawsuit, HP on Thursday said it plans to conduct its own internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Hurd's resignation.

In addition to Lane and Apotheker, HP's board intends to nominate for re-election Marc L. Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz; Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr., senior advisor to Warburg Pincus; Sari M. Baldauf, former executive vice president and general manager of the Networks business group at Nokia; Rajiv L. Gupta, senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital, LLC; John H. Hammergren, president, chairman and CEO of McKesson Corporation; and G. Kennedy Thompson, executive advisor to Aquiline Capital Partners LLC.