Hewlett-Packard ousts female CEO

Hewlett-Packard Co. ousted Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina yesterday, leaving only seven female chief executive officers among the nation’s Fortune 500 companies.

The Palo Alto, Calif., computer giant accepted the resignation of Mrs. Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in business, after disagreements over the company’s 2002 purchase of Compaq Computer that failed to produce the profits Hewlett-Packard sought.

She was appointed head of the technology giant, the nation’s 11th-largest corporation, in 1999.

“While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP’s strategy, I respect their decision,” said Mrs. Fiorina, 50, who is expected to collect a severance package worth $21.1 million.

Her salary and bonus totaled $3.5 million last year, and she was the first woman named CEO, chairman and president of a big computer company.

Among Fortune 500 companies, only 13.6 percent of corporate board members are women, according to a survey by Catalyst Inc., a New York nonprofit research and advisory organization on women’s business.

“What we heard from women provided evidence there is still a glass ceiling in place,” said Paulette Gerkovich, Catalyst’s senior research director. “Just under one half of women told us they faced exclusion from informal networks, gender-based stereotypes and a lack of role models.”

The survey of 948 executives found that 5.2 percent of the five highest-paid corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies were women.

The remaining female chief executives of last year’s Fortune 500 companies are Ann Mulcahy, Xerox; Mary Sammons, Rite Aid; Patricia Russo, Lucent Technologies; Andrea Jung, Avon; S. Marce Fuller, Mirant; Eileen Scott, Pathmark Stores; and Marion Sandler, Golden West Financial Corp.

Recruited from Lucent, Mrs. Fiorina staked her reputation on the $24.2 billion Compaq purchase. The acquisition has failed to boost profit, and HP lost its lead in the personal-computer market to Dell Inc.

“The Compaq merger was a fiasco right from the start,” analyst Jason Maxwell told Bloomberg News.

His Los Angeles firm, TCW Group Inc., manages $100 billion and owns Hewlett-Packard shares.

The company’s shares rose $1.39, or 6.9 percent, to $21.53 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The stock has fallen 55 percent since Mrs. Fiorina was named CEO.

Despite any obstacles female chief executives might face, some of their peers think opportunities for them are improving.

“I think that’s changing,” said Tita Freeman, spokeswoman for the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers from 160 of the nation’s largest companies. “I think more and more women are finding their way into chief executive offices and boardrooms.”

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