Fiorina steps down as HP CEO, chairman

Carly Fiorina has resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, effective immediately, the company announced Wednesday.

Fiorina, who has been HP’s CEO for the past six years, is to be replaced on an interim basis by HP’s current chief financial officer, Robert P. Wayman, the company said in a statement. Wayman, who has been with HP for 36 years, will also continue to fill his role as CFO. HP has already begun its search for a new CEO, the Palo Alto, California company said.

HP also named Patricia Dunn as its non-executive chairman of the board. Dunn has been an HP director since 1998.

HP said it does not plan to make any additional structural changes or executive leadership changes for the time being.

The company statement indicated that Fiorina’s departure stems from disagreements on company strategy.

“While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP’s strategy, I respect their decision,” Fiorina is quoted as saying in the statement.

Last month it was reported that HP’s board of directors was considering a plan that would redistribute some of Fiorina’s day-to-day responsibilities to other HP executives, due in part to the board’s displeasure with the company’s uneven performance.

Fiorina survived a bruising shareholder battle to push through HP’s purchase of Compaq in May 2002. The expectation at the time was that if shareholders rejected the merger, which Fiorina argued was needed to keep HP competitive, Fiorina would leave the company.

She won the necessary shareholder support, but has been under pressure ever since to make the US$21 billion deal pay off, with results analysts call mixed. Recently, Fiorina came in for a round of brutal press coverage, with both Business Week and the Wall Street Journal savaging the HP-Compaq deal as a failure.

Fiorina’s ouster also removes one of the tech industry’s most prominent female executives. Fiorina topped Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list every year from the list’s introduction in 1988 through to 2004, when eBay Inc.’s Meg Whitman displaced her.

HP said it plans to report its first quarter financial results on Feb. 16 and will hold its annual shareowner meeting in Chicago on March 16.