It's resignation week at HP where the company has lost another executive to the scourge that is "personal reasons."

HP's short-time services chief Steve Smith is out. He worked as SVP and GM of HP services since July of 2005, and joined HP in January of 2005 to head up its managed services (aka outsourcing) operations. Before that, he worked at Lucent.

Smith quit on Wednesday for "personal reasons" and HP doesn't know where he's going, according to a spokeswoman.

The same cannot be said for blade server chief Rick Becker who also officially quit HP this week for "personal reasons" but in actuality (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/25/becker_hp_dell/) ended up at Dell.

HP's top female executive survivor Ann Livermore will take on Smith's role until a replacement can be found. ®

Related stories

Outsourcing won't save you money (30 January 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/outsourcing_wont_save_money/
HP names services chief (9 November 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/11/09/hp_services_boss/
Hurd: HP can do better (24 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/24/hurd_hewlett_packard_oracle/
HP spent at least $375,000 on self-destruction (4 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/04/hp_kona_costs/
HP hunts for printer consultants (4 October 2006)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/10/04/hp_hiring_consultants/
Could Capellas return to save HP? (25 September 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/25/hp_capellas_back/