H-P Looks among its Own Ranks for a CEO

Hewlett-Packard (News - Alert) Co.'s board is moving closer to naming a new CEO and would prefer to pick a candidate from within the company, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, citing unnamed sources.

The Journal reported that the company's board met for nearly three days through Sept. 17, with an agenda that included an update on the company’s CEO search.

H-P doesn't expect to name a new CEO in the next several days, The Journal reported.

The CEO’s position became vacant after Mark Hurd stepped down, following an investigation into claims of sexual harassment brought by a former contractor.

Hurd is now is the co-president of Oracle (News - Alert), an H-P rival.

The Journal reported that among H-P's internal candidates who may be considered for the post are:

 Todd Bradley, who runs the personal-computer business.

 Ann Livermore, who oversees the server and services business

 Dave Donatelli, a relatively recent hire who helped to lead H-P's successful bidding war for 3PAR Inc.

An H-P spokeswoman declined to comment, The Journal reported.

The board hasn't ruled out bringing in someone from the outside for the CEO post. H-P has approached a number of potential external candidates, including: Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp. executive who earlier this month was named CEO of Nokia Corp., The Journal reported.

H-P brought in outsiders for its last two CEOs: Carly Fiorina, whom the company hired from Lucent Technologies in 1999, and Mark Hurd (News - Alert), who left NCR Corp. in 2005. Fiorina is now the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from California.

Bradley, executive vice president of H-P's personal systems group, which includes personal computers and mobile devices, has received support in the CEO search process from some board members, The Journal reported.

Bradley, 51, joined H-P in 2005 from Palm, where he was CEO, and turned H-P into the world's largest maker of PCs, surpassing rival Dell (News - Alert) Inc., The Journal reported.