San Francisco – The woman at the centre of the sexual harassment claim that forced the resignation of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd revealed her identity on Sunday and said she is “surprised and saddened” that Hurd lost his job.
Jodie Fisher, 50, knew Hurd through her contract jobs with HP’s marketing department from 2007 to 2009. She was paid up to US$5000 per event to greet people and make introductions among executives attending HP events that she helped organise.
Details revealed on Sunday show that she has also worked as a saleswoman, an executive at a commercial real estate company, and as an actress.
She appeared in some racy R-rated movies in her 30s and most recently was on a dating show called “Age of Love,” in which women competed for the attention of tennis star Mark Philippoussis. Her lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, said Fisher is a single mother who is “focused on raising her young son.”
Fisher repeated that she and Hurd never had a sexual relationship but neither she nor Allred would discuss details of the harassment claim.
That claim set off the chain of events that led to the discovery of allegedly falsified expense reports for dinners Hurd had with Fisher and culminated in Hurd’s forced resignation on Friday from the world’s largest technology company.
Fisher acknowledged that she and Hurd have settled the matter. A person familiar with the case told The Associated Press that Hurd agreed to pay Fisher but would not reveal the size of the payment.
“I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this,” Fisher said in a statement. “That was never my intention.”
Hurd settled with Fisher on Thursday, a day before he resigned. The settlement did not involve a payment from HP, the person close to the case said.
This person, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, was not authorised to speak publicly about the issue.
The investigation by HP’s board of directors found that Hurd listed other people as his dinner partners on expense reports when he’d been out with Fisher. HP also claimed Hurd arranged for her to be paid for work she didn’t do.
There was only one instance in which that occurred, the person close to the case said, but it was for an event that was cancelled at the last minute and that Fisher’s contract required that she would be paid unless an event was cancelled 30 days in advance.
The amount of money in question wasn’t known.
Hurd, 53, insists they were legitimate business expenses. Hurd says the errors in the reports may have been entered unwittingly by an assistant, according to the person close to the case.
The company determined Hurd didn’t violate its sexual harassment policy but broke its rules of conduct and irreparably harmed his credibility and integrity.
Interim CEO Cathie Lesjak defended the company’s decision on Sunday.
She said HP acted appropriately and that investors and big customers she has spoken with have been “extremely supportive.”
“They respect how we dealt with the situation with transparency and speed. The bottom line is, the HP brand is strong,” she said on a conference call with reporters. “One thing happened in this company on Friday – that is the CEO left. The rest of the company did not change.”
Lesjak declined to give details about the expenses Hurd was alleged to have doctored.
HP now must find a new leader to keep it on the course Hurd mapped out.
Under Hurd, HP spent more than $20 billion on acquisitions to transform itself from a computer and printer maker dependent on ink sales for profits to a well-rounded seller of hardware and lucrative business services.
Hurd, who spent 25 years at ATM maker NCR Corp before coming to HP in April 2005, became a Wall Street darling. HP’s market value nearly doubled during his five years.
In recent weeks, he was in talks for a three-year contract that could have been worth $100 million, the person close to the case said. Those went off track when harassment allegations surfaced, this person said.
Hurd will get about $28 million in cash and stock in severance.
HP’s stock fell nearly 10 per cent to $41.85 in after-hours trading, when the news was released after the close of markets Friday.
The company has a deep bench in management and the stock drop was reactive and doesn’t reflect the company’s prospects, an analyst said.
“I don’t view his departure as catastrophic,” said Dinesh Moorjani, an analyst with Gleacher & Co. “The strategy is working fine. The level of uncertainty for me is relatively low just given the circumstances. This wasn’t a one-man company.”
Internal candidates for a successor could have an edge, given that Hurd and predecessor Carly Fiorina – who got the boot in 2005 over concern about her management style and her decision to buy Compaq Computer – both came from outside HP.
Hurd’s ousting is the third in five years at HP’s top echelon. First was Fiorina’s in 2005, then former Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was ousted in 2006 amid a boardroom spying scandal that involved spying on reporters’ and directors’ phone records to suss out the source of leaks to the media.
“It says they’re off track in some fundamental way,” said Stephen Diamond, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and an expert on business law.
“The first thing is, they have to find the right kind of CEO,” he added. “And I think what that CEO needs to do is come in and say, `How many board members were here during the last two scandals? If you were, please resign now.”
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