The woman whose sexual harassment accusation against Mark Hurd led to his ouster as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard came forward on Sunday, saying she never intended for Hurd to lose his job.
Jodie Fisher, a former actress who appeared on an NBC reality TV show in 2007, revealed her identity for the first time through a statement released by her attorney, Gloria Allred.
“I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this,” said Fisher, 50. “That was never my intention.”
Hurd’s resignation, announced on Friday, stunned the business world. HP accused him of falsifying expense reports to conceal a “close personal relationship” with Fisher.
In the company’s first public comments in two days, HP said on Sunday it has received an “extremely supportive” response from investors following the ouster of Hurd, one of the most widely admired CEOs in the world.
The saga began in late June when Fisher leveled a sexual harassment charge against Hurd. She worked as a contractor for HP from late 2007 through last year.
An HP investigation found no violation of the company’s sexual harassment policy, but turned up inaccurate expense reports filed by Hurd or on his behalf, and instances where Fisher received compensation for no legitimate business purpose, HP has said.
Fisher, who is not married and has a son, said on Sunday she has resolved her claim against Hurd privately, but did not provide any further details. She said she did not have an affair with Hurd.
Fisher has worked in commercial real estate, as a saleswoman, and appeared in movies such as Blood Dolls and Sheer Passion in the 1990s, according to the Web site www.imdb.com. Most recently, Fisher appeared on the NBC reality show Age of Love, which aired in 2007.
She has also worked on the House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, according to Allred.
“At HP, I was under contract to work at high-level customer and executive summit events held around the country and abroad,” Fisher said.
“I prepared for those events, worked very hard and enjoyed working for HP,” she said.
HP on Sunday made a public effort to put the controversy behind it and move forward.
Interim CEO Cathie Lesjak said HP has been transparent on the circumstances surrounding Hurd’s departure, but declined to comment further on the matter. Sources close to Hurd’s camp have disputed HP’s account of events.
Lesjak said key investors and customers have supported the company’s action and understand that the Hurd was just one part of a talented team.
“One thing changed in this company on Friday and that was the CEO left,” Lesjak said on a conference call with the media. “The rest of the company has not changed.”
“At the end of the day, the investors that I’ve talked to were confident that we’ve made the right decision,” she said.
Shares fell 10 percent in extended trading on Friday, after the announcement of Hurd’s resignation was made.
Lesjak, who has taken herself out of consideration for the CEO job, said the search committee is moving as swiftly as it can to identify a new leader for HP.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS