HP: Who’s Staying, Who’s Leaving?
On the eve of the HP Discover 2012 conference, it’s time for HP CEO Meg Whitman to ask Hewlett-Packard employees the ultimate question: Who’s staying and who’s leaving? The reason: Everyone is wondering which executives will stick around and manage HP through 27,000 layoffs and major transitions across the hardware, software, storage, mobile and cloud computing markets. Here’s a look at who’s staying and who’s leaving at HP so far.
Among those who are set to exit or recently exited:
- VP Meaghan Kelly, who will exit June 15 and join SAP on June 18. Kelly, a channel veteran with extensive SMB, cloud and mobile experience, is expected to focus on similar market segments when she joins SAP later this month.
- Gary Koopman, former VP of U.S. distribution at HP, recently joined Oracle.
- Tom LaRocca, a former HP channel leader, joined Oracle in January as VP of worldwide product strategy and alliances.
- Frank Rauch, VP of U.S. channels in HP’s Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking division, is leaving for a position at VMware, CRN reported yesterday.
- Autonomy founder Mike Lynch was recently forced out the door after Autonomy’s financial performance didn’t meet HP’s expectations.
And who’s staying?
There are no guarantees but several recent promotions suggest Whitman is trying to reward key executives who embrace her business strategy. Recent promotions include:
- Stephen DiFranco is the newly appointed VP of the Enterprise Group Channel Organizations in the Americas, overseeing HP’s Alliance, OEM, VAR, VAD and Cloud Partner Groups. DiFranco is a two-year HP veteran who was previously Lenovo’s channel chief.
- George Kadifa has been appointed executive VP of the company’s software business, a role he takes over from Bill Veghte. Kadifa joins HP from Silver Lake, a global technology investment firm with more than $14 billion of assets under management.
- Bill Veghte has been named HP’s chief operating officer (COO), and will continue to oversee the HP strategy.
- Jan Zadak assumes the newly created role of president, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), HP Enterprise Services, effective immediately. The move is meant to strengthen HP’s struggling services business, built atop the EDS acquisition.
HP Discover 2012
Amid the mass changes, Whitman and DiFranco, in particular, need to speak with confidence during the major HP Discover 2012 conference (June 4-7, Las Vegas). DiFranco will be on stage as master of ceremonies for partner sessions on June 4. As of this evening, HP’s agenda still listed Rauch as a morning main-session speaker. The VAR Guy is wondering who will fill that spot as Rauch apparently prepares to join VMware.
Whitman, meanwhile, will take the stage June 5 with “special guest speaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation SKG.” It’s an odd pairing considering the massive changes Whitman and HP must navigate in the months and years ahead. But on the other hand, maybe Katzenberg will deliver a welcome, albeit brief, break from the reality of HP’s challenges.
C’mon VG, we wouldn’t know HP without their eternally revolving door. Doesn’t HP stand for “Hurry, Please…”?? 🙂
I met a HP sales guy the other day who had just resigned citing that he spent more time fighting battles inside the company than time with customers. I figure if there are 30000 less people there will be less people to fight with? The words of Sam Palmisano at IBM ring in my ears: Success is perishable. I wonder what HP’s shareholders’ expectations are now?
Howard@1: No doubt, HP has had some revolving door issues among key managers and … um… that CEO slot. But let’s not forget there are 350,000 (approx) HP employees in place… many of them are long-timers.
Frank@2: For HP shareholders, fast forward to 2017. At that point, was Meg Whitman’s hiring the true turning point or will she be considered yet another short-term answer in a road filled with CEO changes? Hmmm…
-TVG
VG, I’m well aware of the vast contingent of HP employees. Around here we refer to them as HP=Hopeless People.
Look, I’m a big fan of HP in some categories, but I also vividly remember Kevin Gilroy assuring us that he would be with the channel for a very long time to come, and three months later him getting up and announcing that he was moving on. Like IBM you can’t expect to come to the well, go from the well, and come to the well again more than a limited number of times. Like when Eckhardt Pfeiffer got up in front of thousands of Compaq partners and exhorted “You ahhhrrrr owwwwer pahhhtnehs. Vee LOVE you!” and there wasn’t a sound from the audience. Like so many years ago when my dear friend Mark Templeton got up in front of Citrix Summit and declared that they would be a one billion dollar software company and was surprised when the audience wouldn’t chant “one billion dollars” with him. They had no idea what that meant to them.
You can’t repeatedly let the channel down and expect them to rally to your side the next time you ask for it. Remember that many of the HP “long-timers” are actually former Digital execs who grew up on the premise that the channel was an irritation, a rash that would eventually go away. I’m not being cynical or trying to trash HP. I’m just being realistic about who’s asking me to dance.