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Hewlett-Packard Taiwan announces head's resignation

Prominent IT veteran Rosemary Ho (何薇玲) announced her resignation as managing director of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Taiwan Ltd yesterday.

According to a company statement, Ho resigned to pursue other career goals and will work till the end of next month.

"Ho offered her resignation to the Singapore head office six months ago, but it is hard to find a suitable candidate for the top position," said Emily Chang (張紫珮), HP Taiwan's corporate marketing manager, in a telephone interview.

The Singapore office has a shortlist of potential candidates, with chances equally split between an internal promotion or the external recruitment of an IT professional, she said.

Replacement

The replacement announcement would be made after the Lunar New Year holiday, Chang said, adding that Ho expected to reveal news about some charity and educational work after her resignation.

Ho, along with ex-Microsoft Taiwan general manager Eunice Chiu (邱麗孟), is one of the most prominent female figures leading foreign IT firms in Taiwan. She was chairwoman of Compaq Computer Taiwan Ltd before it was acquired by HP in 2002.

Under her leadership, the merger of the companies' sales teams was completed in just 60 days instead of the original 100-day timeframe. It meant the merger was completed in Taiwan earlier than HP's other Asia-Pacific branches.

"Ho made huge contributions to HP throughout her 11 years of service, especially in improving local sales and establishing a great industry network," Tom Iannotti, senior vice president and managing director of HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, said in the statement.

Faithful

HP stuck with the same Taiwanese suppliers following its acquisition of Compaq -- a strong relationship demonstrated by HP chief executive Mark Hurd's first visit to Taiwan in December to meet with some of those suppliers. But industry watchers said the company has in fact squeezed the margins of local suppliers to drive down its unit costs on all computer hardware purchased here.

Even so, the company has for years been the largest foreign procurer of Taiwanese IT products including desktop and laptop computers as well as servers and other computer peripherals, followed by Dell Inc and Sony Corp.

Last year, the company procured approximately US$20 billion worth of IT products from Taiwanese firms, up 17.6 percent from 2005, statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed.
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