HP chairwoman fights for job amid leak
scandal
HP Board Chairman Patricia Dunn is
under
fire. |
BEIJING,
Sept. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The fate of Patricia Dunn, Chairman of
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), remained unanswered Sunday as HP's board of directors
adjourned an emergency phone conference and will meet again Monday
afternoon for her role in company-ordered inquiry into a boardroom
leak.
Dunn authorized the investigation earlier this year to
find out if any of the company's directors were leaking the board's information
as several media stories quoted unnamed people about HP boardroom activity.
As part of their surveillance, the investigators used
social security numbers and other personal information to impersonate HP
directors and nine journalists with such publications as the New York Times,
Wall Street Journal and Business Week magazine.
The impostors tricked AT&T and other phone companies
into turning over detailed logs of their home and cellular phone calls.
As the result of the inquiry, board member George Keyworth
II was identified as the source of the leak, and HP responded by barring him
from seeking re-election.
Dunn told the AP that the media leaks were an "egregious
breach" of the company's standards and that the board of directors fully backed
an investigation to root out the source.
An investigation by California Attorney General Bill
Lockyer found that the tactics broke state laws related to identity theft and
illegal access to computer records.
Lockyer said this week he was still digging to determine
the breadth of the violations, but added that Dunn, HP's attorneys, the
investigators and others could face criminal charges.
Another HP director, longtime Silicon Valley venture
capitalist Tom Perkins, resigned from the board in May in protest of the
investigator's tactics.
Dunn told the reporters last week she would resign if
asked, but said several fellow board members had urged her to remain on the job
despite the criminal investigation.
"I serve at the pleasure of the board," she said on
Friday. "I totally trust their judgment. If they think it would be better for me
to step aside, I would do that. But a number of directors have urged me to hang
in there." Enditem
(Agencies)
