Mark Hurd

Mark Vincent Hurd (January 1, 1957 – October 18, 2019) was an American technology executive who served as Co-CEO and as a member of the board of directors of Oracle Corporation.

He graduated from The Browning School, in NYC, in 1974.

In 1979, Hurd graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University, in Waco, Texas.

He received a tennis scholarship to attend Baylor University and was a member of Phi Delta Theta.

Hurd spent 25 years at NCR Corporation, culminating in a two-year tenure as chief executive officer and president.

He began working for NCR as a junior salesman in San Antonio in 1980 after Rodney Gray hired him and subsequently held a variety of positions in general management, operations, and sales and marketing.

He also served as head of the company's Teradata data-warehousing division for three years.

He was named president of NCR in 2001 and was given additional responsibilities as chief operating officer in 2002.

Hurd was appointed permanent CEO and also held the title of President, a post which was not used by several of his predecessors (Michael Capellas was President of HP for a transitional period in 2002 after its merger with Compaq).

Hurd was also elected to the board of directors but unlike previous CEOs, he was initially not designated to be chairman of the board which was instead filled by a non-executive director.

While the merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq was heavily criticized back in 2002, Hurd managed to make the combined company execute successfully, something his predecessor Fiorina had failed to do.

The New York Times said Hurd had "pulled off one of the great rescue missions in American corporate history, refocusing the strife-ridden company and leading it to five years of revenue gains and a stock that soared 130 percent".

Hurd was said to have run HP "with a founder's authority. He was the de facto CEO, CFO, COO and head salesman".

Hurd had a reputation for aggressive cost-cutting.

He laid off 15,200 workers — 10% of the workforce — shortly after becoming CEO.

Other cost-cutting included reducing the IT department from 19,000 to 8,000, reducing the number of software applications that HP used from 6,000 to 1,500, and consolidating HP's 85 data centers to 6.

Detractors, however, viewed it as a continuation of empire building, which started with the acquisition of Compaq in 2002 several years before Hurd joined HP.

After the board forced chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina to resign in January 2005 over policy differences following the Compaq merger, executive vice president and CFO Robert P. Wayman became interim CEO for several months.

On September 22, 2006, Hurd succeeded Pat Dunn as board chairman after she resigned due to the pretexting controversy.

During his leadership, the company became the leader of the sale of laptop computers in 2006, and the leader in the sale of desktop computers in 2007.

In 2007.

while serving as chairman and CEO at Hewlett-Packard, Hurd was named one of Fortune Magazine's 25 most powerful people in business.

In 2008, it increased its market share in inkjet printers and laser printers to 46% and 50.5%, respectively.

In 2008, The San Francisco Chronicle named Hurd as CEO of the year.

In 2008, Hurd's total compensation was $39,952,237, including a base salary of $1,450,000, stock award of $7,907,660, cash bonus of $23,931,882, and $662,695 in perquisites and other compensation.

It was the largest bonus of any CEO in 2008.

In March 2009, Hurd forecast that HP's sales could drop as much as 5% that year, in the midst of the recession, but that its profit would increase by nearly 6%.

Under Hurd's tenure, the company met Wall Street expectations in 21 out of 22 quarters and increased profits for 22 straight quarters, while its revenue rose 63% and stock price doubled.

During the 2009 recession, depending on job role Hurd imposed a temporary 5%, 10% or 15% pay cut on all employees and removed many benefits.

He himself took a base salary pay cut of 20%, although the compensation committee increased his bonus by the same amount.

Hurd's emphasis on short-term results and financial management, particularly cutting costs, taking the lead in the PC business, plus acquisitions (EDS and 3Com), were successful in raising profits and shareholder return.

In 2009, Hurd was listed as one of Forbes' top gun CEOs.

In 2009, Hurd made a total of $24,201,448, including a base salary of $1,268,750, stock award of $6,648,092, cash bonus of $15,809,414 and $475,192 in benefits and other compensation.

He had previously served as chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Hewlett-Packard, before his forced resignation in 2010.

He was also on the board of directors of Globality and was a member of the Technology CEO Council and board of directors of News Corporation until 2010.

Hurd was born in New York City, the son of Teresa A. (Fanoni), a debutante, and Ralph Steiner Hurd, a financier.

On August 6, 2010, Hurd resigned from all of his positions at HP, with the Board of Directors appointing CFO Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO.

Hurd's decision was made after an investigation into whether Hurd violated HP's code of business conduct following claims made by former contractor, Jodie Fisher.

The investigation concluded that the company's sexual-harassment policy was not violated, but in the course of investigating the allegations, they found that Hurd had submitted inaccurate expense reports.

Outside observers suggested the company's board of directors had made a poor decision and may have had mixed motives in requiring his resignation in order to mitigate negative publicity.