HP called out for director selection improprieties

HP called out for director selection improprieties

A week before Hewlett-Packard's annual meeting, a shareholder advisory firm is urging clients not to endorse the company's newly nominated board members.

International Shareholder Services sent a report to clients that accuses HP and its new CEO Leo Apotheker of not following the board's own guidelines for director appointments, in particular saying Apotheker should have had no role in the process. ISS says HP board members are to be nominated by independent directors only, which would rule out Apotheker.

Bloomberg got its hands on the report andpublished excerpts today. According to the report, ISS writes: "The direct participation of Apotheker in the appointment of five new directors raises red flags...The board is responsible for representing shareholders and overseeing management, in particular the CEO."

On January 20,HP announced four board members would retire and nominated five new members: Shumeet Banerji, CEO of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, former CIO at GE; Patricia Russo, former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay and recent California gubernatorial candidate.

ISS points out some extra-familiarity Apotheker has with four of the nominated directors--he's on an advisory board of Senequier's company, and the two are both board members of Schneider Electric; and counted Whitman, Russo, and Reiner as customers while he was chief executive at SAP. ISS says that is not necessarily in shareholders' best interests since these directors, if elected, will essentially be Apotheker's bosses.

When asked for comment, HP defended its selection process and said the ISS report was based on a "misinterpretation."

"HP has strong and robust governance practices. We believe that ISS's recommendation is based on their misinterpretation of the process that HP employed in identifying, selecting, and nominating our directors," said an HP spokesperson in a statement. "We do not believe that it would be in the best interests of HP's stockholders to lose the service of the experienced and dedicated Board members who have been delegated primary responsibility for establishing and maintaining those governance practices and who, by any standard, have carried out their obligations in a fully compliant manner."

Other Business News:Touch Screen Monitors,laptop batteries,Acer batbl50l6 batteries

Read more:http://www.wholesaleeshop.com.au/Wholesale-Electronics-News/ten-indespensible-ipad-tips-and-tricks-for-your-ipad-2-by-www-wholesaleeshop-com-au/

POST COMMENT

Expressing our Faith by Wearing Christian T-shirts The Call of True Islam Trip To Coptic And Islamic Old Cairo City Sightseeing From Port Said Baby Gender Selection Methods - Steps That You Can Take to Ensure You Conceive the Gender of Your Dreams Cheating Spouse Help - How to Deal With an Unfaithful Spouse and Save Your Heart From Being Broken Choosing the Sex of Your Baby - Natural Gender Selection Methods Any Woman Can Use Today Effective Gender Selection Methods – Natural Ways to Pick the Gender of Your Baby All on Your Own Put Social Media to Work for Your Site Abel's Sacrifice by Faith Versus Cain's Sacrifice How Can Hoteliers Use Social Media To Their Advantage? Social Media How-To Tips for selection of Private Asset Management American ways of espionage, Is it subjugation of world or Muslims