After CEO’s resignation, H-P lauded as ‘a model of board governance’

August 30, 2010

Despite some external demands for further salacious details about the abrupt resignation earlier this month of H-P chief executive Mark Hurd, the company’s board has shown noteworthy courage by emphasizing long-term principles over short-term business performance, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a dean at the Yale School of Management, writes for a New York Times blog. The “H-P sequel,” as he calls it, “is a welcomed model of board governance,” and shows “how great enterprises are built to last.”

Instead of denying bad news through misleading public relations campaigns, H-P’s directors conducted an independent investigation of sexual-harassment charges against Hurd. No evidence of sexual harassment was found, but the investigation revealed that Hurd had falsified expense reports, and the board decided to dismiss the highly successful chief executive. Hurd reportedly was paid minimal legal severance with accumulated earned stock, and no accelerated vesting was offered, as other boards have done.

But some Silicon Valley techies are still grasping for prurient details. Chris O’Brien, a columnist for The San Jose Mercury News, reportedly complained on Friday that “we still do not know the full story” about Hurd’s departure. Conversely, soon after Hurd’s ouster, his friend Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s founder and chief executive, argued that the termination “was the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs,” the company’s visionary founder. — Greg Beaubien

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