Livermore out, Donatelli, Veghte promoted in HP exec shuffle

Ann LivermoreAttendees of last week’s HP Discover event in Las Vegas may have seen Ann Livermore’s last keynote as head of HP’s enterprise business following a sweeping group of executive changes at the vendor announced Monday.

The company announced that Livermore will step down from her day-to-day role and take a newly created seat on the HP board.

Under the shakeup, HP will go from having one executive (Livermore) representing the company’s enterprise business when it comes to direct reports to CEO Léo Apotheker. Instead, ESSN chief Dave Donatelli, software boss Bill Veghte and sales chief Jan Zadak will all become direct reports to Apotheker. Meanwhile, HP will search for a new services chief, with Livermore taking on the role on an interim basis.

In a statement announcing the moves, HP said the moves were motivated by a desire to elevate “businesses most critical to customers and which play a key role in delivering on the opportunities the company sees as the IT industry evolves.”

The well-respected Livermore had been a perennial contender for HP’s top spot whenever the company found itself looking for a chief executive over the last decade, but on three occasions, HP has opted to look outside for a new CEO, bringing in Carly Fiorina, Mark Hurd and finally Léo Apotheker for the big office. In recent presentations, including those at HP’s Americas Partner Conference and at last week’s Discover event, Livermore has served to broadly tee up HP’s enterprise strategy before handing proceedings over to Donatelli and Veghte for deeper dives into their respective divisions.

The departure of Livermore and the related promotions are not only changes in Apotheker’s executive suite. The company announced that chief administrative officer Pete Bocian is leaving the company, as is CIO Randy Mott. HP said Bocian’s roles will be “subsumed within other parts of HP,” while the company will look for a new CIO. Both moves were called part of an effort to “streamline its administrative operations.”

Meanwhile, the company also announced that two of its major business unit chiefs will be appointed as “sponsors” to key growth markets, with PSG chief Todd Bradley acting as HP’s executive sponsor for China, while IPG boss Vyomesh Joshi will fill a similar role as sponsor for India.