HP's Board of Directors has announced that it has chosen Léo Apotheker, the former CEO of German enterprise software company SAP, as the company's new CEO.
Léo Apotheker will replace interim CEO Cathie Lesjak and join the company's Board of Directors on November 1. The Board also elected Ray Lane, a managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as non-executive chairman of the board.
Early last month, HP ousted Mark Hurd as CEO following a sexual harassment scandal. The drama continued when his alleged victim spoke up. Tech circles debated whether HP's board should have forced Hurd out before Oracle hired him as co-president of the company.
Netscape founder and HP board member Marc Andreessen was tapped to lead the search for HP's new CEO. While there was a great deal of discussion of promoting someone internally in HP (particularly Todd Bradley, HP's EVP of the personal systems group), the Board decided to bring in an outsider once again to lead the company.