CEO, Wave Goodbye
The defamation of Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd continues to make the news this week, following his ousting from the company almost two weeks ago, but Hurd isn’t alone in the Hall of Fame of slanderous CEOs.
Long lauded with making HP the world’s biggest technology company, Hurd had reportedly been in talks to negotiate a new three-year contract worth about $100 million, but revelations of a sexual harassment complaint against him, and the ensuing investigation that uncovered falsified expense reports, resulted in his rather abrupt departure from the firm on 6 August.
The news broke last Saturday and places Hurd as the latest in a long line of CEOs forced to jump ship after a scandal hit. Here, we take a look at some of the most significant and definitive cases of CEO debauchery in recent years.
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The mid-2000s were full of apologies and resignations from CEOs who were caught to be on the wrong side of that thin line between risk-taking and law-breaking. Kenneth Lay’s story, for instance, as the former CEO of Enron, remains one of history’s most famous CEO dramas. Within a year of the SEC opening an investigation into Enron’s accounting books in 2001, the company’s stock price had plummeted. Enron had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Lay and fellow exec Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of fraud and conspiracy. While Skilling is now jail, Lay died from a heart attack while awaiting sentencing.
2004 saw Frank Dunn, former CEO of communications giant Nortel, also fall victim to scandal following his involvement in a widespread accounting scandal; while the same year saw Martha Stewart, CEO and chairwoman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia go to jail after being found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of proceedings and lying to federal investigators.
So just what is it about being at the top that encourages scandal? And how can business leaders learn from others mistakes? To discover more on being the complete executive (without the dodgy scandal), head to MeetTheBoss.tv for leadership lessons and much more.
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