George A. Keyworth, II

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Dr. George Albert II Keyworth (G. A. Keyworth) (born 1939), U.S. physicist; presidential Science Advisor 1981-1985. He was a board member of Hewlett Packard who was asked to step down in light of the controversy surrounding disclosure of sensitive information to the media.[1] He resigned on September 13, 2006.[2]

Contents

[edit] Career

Keyworth has been chairman and senior fellow with The Progress & Freedom Foundation since 1995.[3][4]

He was Science Advisor to the president and director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1981 to 1986.[4][5] He is also a director of General Atomics.[4]

[edit] Hewlett Packard resignation

In early 2005, after news leaks about then-CEO Carly Fiorina's clashes with the board surfaced, Fiorina hired a law firm to find the source.[2] In February 2005, Fiorina left the company and Patricia Dunn, non-executive chairwoman, continued the investigation.[2] As part of a larger scandal, a subcontractor used pretexting to expose Keyworth as the source of a leak to Cnet, and he was outed at a May 18, 2006 board meeting.[2] At the meeting, Dunn asked Keyworth to resign, he refused, and another board member (Tom Perkins) resigned over the way Keyworth was being treated.[2][6] HP revealed the story on September 6, 2006 and said that they were not seeking Keyworth's reelection to the board.[6] Coinciding with Mark V. Hurd's promotion to chairman, Keyworth resigned on September 12th.[2]

Keyworth had been a director of HP since 1986 and, until his resignation, was the longest-serving director at the company.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Olsen, Parmy. "Dunn For?", Forbes, 2006-09-07. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "New HP chief makes the best of a bad situation", USA Today, 2006-09-13. Retrieved on 2006-09-25. 
  3. ^ Advisory Committee. The Digital Age Communications Act Project. Progress & Freedom Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
  4. ^ a b c George A. (Jay) Keyworth II profile. RightWeb (2003-11-20). Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
  5. ^ Past Science Advisors. Office of Science and Technology Policy. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
  6. ^ a b Pimentel, Benjamin. "HP pushing out veteran member of board", San Francisco Chronicle, 2006-09-06. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.