Fiorina Named HP President and CEO

Electronic News, July 26, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., has announced the appointment of Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina as president and chief executive officer, succeeding Lewis E. Platt, who had announced his intention to retire this year.

Fiorina, who was previously president of Lucent Technologies' Global Service Provider Business and recently named by Fortune as the most powerful woman in American business, also will join the HP board of directors. Platt will remain chairman until year-end.

"Carly Fiorina brings to HP an extraordinary and rare ability to conceptualize and champion clear business strategies while staying focused on achieving operational results," said Sam Ginn, a member of HP's board of directors, who led the search committee. "Her approach to business also resonates clearly with HP's values and heritage. The board unanimously agreed that she is quite simply the ideal candidate to leverage HP's core strengths in the rapidly changing information- systems industry and to lead this great company well into the new millennium."

Fiorina has nearly 20 years of broad technology and telecommunications experience at Lucent and AT&T. During the past two years as president of Lucent's Global Service Provider Business, the division dramatically increased its growth rate, rapidly expanded its international revenues and gained market share in every region across every product line. She also had spearheaded the planning and execution of Lucent's 1996 initial public offering and its spin-off from AT&T.

"Leaving Lucent was a very difficult decision, but this is a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity for me," Fiorina said. "Hewlett-Packard is a company of great accomplishment and even greater potential ... I am delighted and deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead one of the most respected companies in the world-and I will strive to strike the right balance between reinforcing HP's values and working to reinvent its businesses."

A man who knows well the values of HP, Fiorina's predecessor Platt joined HP in 1966 as a process engineer in the Medical Products Group. In 1992, he became HP's CEO, and the company's revenues have since grown 187 percent to $47.1 billion, while its earnings have grown 436 percent over the same period.

"HP has achieved remarkable success under Lew Platt's leadership," Ginn said. "The company has generated substantial value for shareholders since he became CEO ... HP has earned broad respect as a business, as one of the most admired companies and as a workplace of choice-notable successes by any standard."

During his remaining time at HP, Platt will oversee the separation of the measurement businesses-Communications Solutions, Electronic Solutions, Automated Test, Chemical Analysis, Medical Products and Semiconductor Products-from HP's computing and imaging businesses. Edward (Ned) W. Barnholt will be president and CEO of the new measurement company, which will be named shortly and is now referred to as NewCo.

The businesses being aligned under NewCo have revenues of $7.6 billion in fiscal 1998. The new company is being called "an $8 billion start- up." and will see 45,000 of HP's 122,800 employees worldwide under a new banner.