HP contractor 'surprised and saddened' by Hurd sacking
'Never my intention'
Mark Hurd's nemesis is a former soft porn actress and a reality TV wannabe and she is "surprised and saddened" by his enforced departure from HP. And she has privately settled her sexual harassment claim with him.
In a statement released on Sunday by her attorney, the celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, Fisher said:
"I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention.
"Mark and I never had an affair or intimate sexual relationship. I first met Mark in 2007 when I interviewed for a contractor job at the company.
"At HP, I was under contract to work at high-level customer and executive summit events held around the country and abroad. I prepared for those events, worked very hard and enjoyed working for HP. I have resolved my claim with Mark privately, without litigation, and I do not intend to comment on it further."
Multi-millionaire Hurd bit the bullet on Friday over $20,000 in improperly claimed expenses, said to have concealed meetings with former HP contractor Jodie Fisher. The transgressions were uncovered when she made a sexual harassment claim against the company. Former Reg hack Ashlee Vance has a good account of the relationship between Hurd and Fisher here.
Fisher, 50, appeared in R-rated TV programs in her 30s, and there is also an Australian tennis player angle. In 2007, she appeared on a an NBC show called Age of Love. in which she was one of 12 "bachelorettes" trying to grab the attention of Mark Philippoussis, the improbably tall, Melbourne-born former tennis star.
There is much more to Fisher's resume, but nothing near as racy. Over to Allred who has this to say in a note accompanying the statement she drafted for Fisher.
"My client is a single mom focused on raising her young son. She has a degree in Political Science from Texas Tech and was recently the vice president of a commercial real estate company. She formerly worked on the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. She has also been a successful salesperson for a Fortune 500 company and has been in various television shows and films, some of which were R-rated when she was in her 30's. Most recently, Jodie was one of the stars in an NBC television show called "Age of Love."
COMMENTS
Typical.
"Mark and I never had an affair or intimate sexual relationship..."
So he blew a load of time and a fair amount of the company's money, but never brought the thing to a successful conclusion?
I guess the EDS culture got to him........
Hurd should get nothing!
So whilst he was making thousands redundant , many without any form of compensation package, he was busy bedding a looser actress bimbo with blond hair who couldnt get a decent acting job. When the cocktail party circuit was ended, Jodie then sues for sexual harrasement and gets a private payout. Not bad . Thats one way of making money for nothing. Hurd is walking away for up to $50 million - thats another scandal. He shouldnt pick up a dime.
He fiddled expenses to pay for this woman to be around him. He authorised the payment of them. When HP bought EDS, people lost their jobs overnight, with no payouts and for no reason other than Hurd cuts. He should have got the same - nothing.
Hopefully his wife will sue the ass of him for more that the $50 million.
Let's dig around to find something to sack him with....
So the sexual harassment stuff didn't stick, but the mere fact that it had been brought was always going to come out sooner or later, so the Board managed to trawl up some dodgy expense receipts and forced him to fall on his sword.
Sounds like the local government story by an AC up above has its parallels in HP.
Not to speak well of the departed (and risking a serious flaming), but personally this guy was nothing more than a bean-counter who tidied up after Carly did the real job of turning HP into a modern IT company. He got credit for stuff that she had done and just needed time to come to fruition - an all too common story in publicly traded companies. The person with the vision to see what is needed is rarely still there when it pays off, having been sacked over the uproar (and resultant drop in share price) that goes with the upheaval.
HP was old, lazy and fat and needed a kick in the pants. Now it one of the major players again. Do you think that was due to Carly or this guy?
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