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HP shuffles top-ranking executives

Veteran Hewlett-Packard executive Ann Livermore will step down and join the board of directors. HP's chief administrative officer and chief information officer have left the company.

Erica Ogg Former Staff writer, CNET News
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur.
Erica Ogg
2 min read
 
Ann Livermore
Ann Livermore is stepping down from her day-to-day executive role and taking a seat on HP's board. HP
Hewlett-Packard just announced some big changes to its executive team.

Ann Livermore is stepping down from running HP's Enterprise Business unit, and will join the company's board of directors, the company said in a statement. Her new seat will be added to the board and will not replace any current member's.

Until HP names a replacement, Livermore will serve as interim head of Enterprise Services.

HP also said it is eliminating the position of chief administrative officer. The man who currently holds that position, Pete Bocian, is leaving immediately, reportedly for a job in investment banking.

Chief Information Officer Randy Mott is also leaving HP effective immediately. HP says it is looking for a successor and plans to "broaden" the scope of his former role at the company.

Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of the Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services group; Bill Veghte, executive vice president of Software; and Jan Zadak, executive vice president of Global Sales will report directly to CEO and President Leo Apotheker.

HP painted the moves as more closely in line with "its corporate structure with the strategy it announced in March." That was when Apotheker first laid out his vision for the company he joined last fall. He wants HP to focus on three areas: cloud services, connectivity among devices, and software.

Livermore is the most notable change. She's been with HP since 1982, working her way up the ranks of the company's software and services division to run Enterprise Business. Livermore has been considered a top candidate for the chief executive roleon three separate occasions, losing out to Carly Fiorina, Mark Hurd, and Apotheker.

The board Livermore joins is one that has had its own share of chaos this year. In January HP parted ways with four longtime board members and added five new ones. Several months later, a shareholder advisory group mounted a challenge to keep the five new members from being elected at HP's annual shareholder meeting, citing ethical concerns in how the group had been selected. The challenge failed and all of them were reelected.