Page 1 of 4
HP's solution provider partners hope the vendor looks inside to replace Mark Hurd as president and CEO and are placing their bets on two of HP's most aggressive executives as the primary candidates.
Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, and Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager of HP's enterprise servers, storage and networking business, should be the leading candidates to head HP, according to solution providers, who hope Hurd's replacement will be named as quickly as possible.
Hurd departed HP last month after an investigation into what the company called improperly filed expenses and an improper relationship with a subcontractor.
Hurd late Monday was announced as a new co-president at Oracle.
Bradley is a longtime HP executive and for the past three years has headed HP's Personal Systems Group as it made HP the largest PC vendor in the world.
Donatelli is a former top executive from HP's top storage rival, EMC, where he spent 22 years, most recently as president of the EMC Storage Division. Donatelli joined HP in April 2009, at which time he was sued by EMC over his noncompete clause with the company.
It is important for HP to replace Hurd as quickly as possible, but the company is fortunate in having a strong group of executives from whom to choose, said John Convery, executive vice president of vendor relations and marketing at Denali Advanced Integration, a Redmond, Wash.-based HP partner.
That group includes Bradley, Donatelli and Ann Livermore, executive vice president for enterprise business, Convery said.
"You see leadership ready to step up at HP," Convery said. "HP has CEO-quality leaders in all its business groups. I hope the next CEO comes from inside the company. It takes time to build a company's strategies."
NEXT: Who's Best For HP And The Channel?
