Leo Apotheker to Replace Mark Hurd as H-P CEO

Ready the welcome wagon: Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced that SAP AG executive Leo Apotheker will succeed Mark Hurd as the tech giant's next CEO. Apotheker leaves SAP after 20 years. Robert Ryan, H-P's lead independent director, said, "Leo is a strategic thinker with a passion for technology, wide-reaching global experience and proven operational discipline—exactly what we were looking for in a CEO." Ray Lane, a former Oracle Corp. president, will also join H-P as its new non-executive chairman. Both will officially begin their appointments on November 1. Earlier this year, Hurd was pushed out after five years at the top post, following a much-publicized sexual-harassment investigation. Ultimately Hurd was found not guilty of harassment, but H-P let him go for violating the company's code of conduct.