October 16, 2009

Bloomington, Ind. -- On Thursday, October 15, 2009, Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd addressed the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University host as part of the school's CEO speaker series. The event, attended by undergraduate and MBA students, as well as faculty and staff of the Kelley School, took place in the forum of the Godfrey Center.

Mark Hurd, CEO of Hewlett Packard, addresses the Kelley School of Business.

Hurd joined HP as CEO and president in 2005 and was named chairman of the board in 2006. Before joining HP, Hurd spent 25 years at NCR Corp., where he rose from field sales to chief executive officer.

In his talk at the Kelley School, Hurd discussed his vision for HP in a talk entitled "Remaking HP: Operations, competition, technology trends and innovation in a global economy."

Between its 2004 and 2008 fiscal years, HP grew revenue from $80 billion to $118.4 billion and more than doubled its earnings per share. HP serves more than 1 billion customers worldwide, ranging from individual consumers to the largest global enterprises.

"It's not a company's size that drives complexity," Hurd explained. "Globality drives complexity." HP currently has more than 320,000 employees and does business in more than 170 countries, with a portfolio spanning printing, personal computing, software, services, and IT infrastructure.

In his remarks, Hurd emphasized that being a CEO requires experience in many different roles that stretch one's abilities. He also stated that success as a CEO required good business strategy, a well-thought-out organizational structure as well as being surrounded by good people.