Patricia Dunn will step down as chairman of the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard Co. in January, the company announced today. Ms. Dunn and the board of the Palo Alto, Calif., company have been under scrutiny for a controversial investigation over media leaks from its own ranks. Mark Hurd, HP CEO and president, will succeed Ms. Dunn as chairman while retaining his current positions, according to an HP news release.
Ms. Dunn was originally named an HP director in 1998, when she was global CEO of Barclays Global Investors. She was later elected chairman by the HP board after Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina stepped down in February 2005.
Ms. Dunn has been a non-executive vice chairman at Barclays Global Investors since 2002, the year she stepped down as BGI's global CEO to focus on her cancer treatment.
