More execs hit the road at HP

Two more executives have left Hewlett-Packard, as the constant churn of reorganization continues at the company.

Howard Elias, who was the senior vice president of business management and operations, resigned late last week to pursue other interests, an HP representative confirmed. Hugh Jenkins, vice president of marketing for industry standard servers, resigned for similar reasons.

Neither executive will be replaced. Elias' responsibilities will be absorbed by his former boss, Peter Blackmore, executive vice president of the enterprise systems group.

The departures mark a further streamlining of the executive ranks at HP. Since the merger with Compaq Computer closed in May 2002, a number of executives, including former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas, have departed. Both Elias and Jenkins came from Compaq's server division.

HP also is in the midst of layoffs. In August, the company said it would cut 4,800 workers above and beyond the layoffs associated with the Compaq merger. Three months earlier, HP anticipated cutting only 3,500 supplemental employees. More than 16,000 positions were eliminated after the Compaq acquisition.

After the merger closed, Elias was appointed to run HP's storage division, but his job was changed during a reorganization in May.

Invite Michael Kanellos into your in-box Senior department editor Michael Kanellos scrutinizes the hardware industry in a weekly column that ranges from chips to servers and other critical business systems. Enterprise Hardware every Wednesday.

He took over strategy and information technology issues for the enterprise systems group, the division that handles storage, server and large-customer sales. At that time, storage was transferred to Senior Vice President Scott Stallard.

Despite the departures, many former Compaq executives continue to work at HP, according to the company representative. Blackmore, who is HP's top executive for corporate hardware, came from Compaq, as did Alex Gruzen, who runs HP's notebook division.