Sad and shocking news that former HP CEO Mark Hurd has passed away!
Hurd followed Carly Fiorina in that job, joining HP in 2005, and since our employment overlapped by a few months, I witnessed a couple of coffee talks featuring the former NCR chief. My fellow employees and I welcomed him with open arms, as he was enthusiastic and open-minded about our business, and signified a new era after the Fiorina period (which it is worth noting that started with high levels of employee support and enthusiasm).
I remember him being great with a flip chart, and also recall he liked that we (HP generally) were in the TV business, as that was a product he could relate to.
It was a few years later, 2010 to be exact, that it all fell apart for Hurd, who had grown unpopular with the rank and file, partly for his penny-pinching ways, including a "two to a cube" policy. He was unceremoniously dumped by the HP Board on a perceived affair he was having on the company dime. Larry Ellison signed him on at Oracle, almost immediately, where he remained until his death, though he had taken medical leave last month.
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