Falling under the category of “what where they thinking” or perhaps “when in doubt don’t” the Chairman and CEO Of HP resigned today after an investigation into violations of the company’s sexual harrassment policy. The investigation found that while no harrassment had occurred, expense reports had been altered to cover up his “close and personal relationship” with a marketing consulting hired by his office. Given that Mr. Hurd received nearly $100 million in total compensation over the past three years he certainly could have afforded to pay out of pocket the estimated $20,000 of ”altered expenses”.
Kudo on insisiting on ethical behavior and Mr. Hurd resignation go to the HP board- since Mr. Hurd is acknowledged as the architect of HP successful turn-around and by all accounts a good CEO, despite this recent lapse in judgement, it might have been easier to keep him on and sweep this under the rug. It will be interesting to see how much of his contracted $12M severance payment he actually receives and will HP also insist on criminal charges.
A series of bad decisions around a personal relationship in the workplace has now lead to the resignation of a highly successful leader, a leadership vacuum at HP, a decreased stock prices that impact any one who owns the stock, to say nothing of the embarrassment to his wife and family.