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Hewlett-Packard's Chairwoman to resign

Andrew Clark

PHOTO: AP

Hewlett-Packard chief Patricia Dunn.

New York: A boardroom spying furore at Hewlett-Packard has cost the computer company's chairman her job, bringing down one of the most powerful and respected women in corporate America.

Patricia Dunn is to step down at HP's next board meeting in January to try to dampen a scandal over the use of underhand techniques to obtain the personal phone records of several directors and at least nine journalists.

Her departure was announced on a day of revolving doors on Wall Street, which also saw the dismissal of Bristol-Myers Squibb's chief executive, Peter Dolan, amid controversy over the drugs company's commercial tactics.

But it was the turmoil at the top of HP which attracted the greatest attention as Ms. Dunn (53) took the blame for hiring private investigators who concealed their identities in the hunt for the source of damaging leaks to the media. ``Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques. These went beyond what we understood them to be, and I apologise that they were employed,'' she said.

HP's controversial leak inquiry identified a non-executive director, George Keyworth, as the person feeding unauthorised information to reporters.

``I have sought to conduct myself in a way that would make our co-founder and my friend and mentor, David Packard, proud,'' said Mr Keyworth, who attacked the unauthorised use of his name and social security number to access his phone bills.

Journalists from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Business Week and the technology website CNET were among those whose phone records were accessed. A retired geophysicist living in New Mexico, who is the father of a CNET journalist, was also targeted. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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