Microsoft Legend Ray Ozzie Joins HP Board

HP has brought in three summer signings to fill up its board, including Microsoft hero and Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie.

The Silicon Valley giant has been going through some turbulent times, what with declining revenue across many of its core areas, from printing to client systems.

Ozzie arrives at HP

CEO Meg Whitman has been on a mission to turn things around and three big names have now been added to the board. Ozzie is joined by former CEO of Liberty Media Robert Bennett and former McDonald’s CEO James Skinner, who is currently chairman of Walgreen.

The additions take the number of HP directors up from nine to 12.

“As we move forward with our turnaround, it’s a huge benefit to be able to get advice from a board made up of such experienced business and technology leaders,” Whitman said.

“For their part, Bob, Ray and Jim have just about seen it all during their careers.”

“In April, we made a pledge to recruit the very best, most talented leaders to HP’s already outstanding board,” added Ralph Whitworth, interim chairman of the board.

Ozzie, who joined Microsoft in 2005 when his company Groove Networks was acquired, will sit on the technology and finance committees at HP.

Ozzie left Microsoft in 2010, forming a start up Talko, which has received $4 million in funding and is rumoured to be producing a mobile comms app.

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