Hewlett-Packard Taps Financial Technology Leadership

Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto, Calif.) has selected a new CEO from the world of financial technology. HP's new president and CEO, Mark Hurd, was formerly president and CEO of NCR (Dayton, Ohio), a global provider of ATMs, retail systems, data warehouses and IT services.

Even though NCR (2004 revenues: $6 billion) is a much smaller company than HP (2004 revenues: $82 billion), the two share characteristics in terms of organizational structure, global footprint and history. "There's quite a bit of overlap and commonality," notes John Wallace, vice president and managing director, global financial services industry, HP. "Both companies are continuously working to best serve global customers."

There are also strong parallels from the standpoint of corporate culture. "I came from a company that was founded in 1884 -- this one was founded in 1938," observed Hurd, speaking at a press conference. "Companies that have that much history have tremendous assets in that legacy."

Hurd intends to focus on improving operations, creating demand for HP technology and driving profitable growth. Given his background, it is reasonable to expect that the financial services market will receive a healthy share of top management attention. "[Financial services] is a very important industry and set of customers, and it presents numerous opportunities for growth going forward," says Wallace.

"Certainly I view it as a positive, and I would expect that many of HP's financial services customers would be encouraged that the new CEO is someone that has extensive experience in our industry," Wallace adds.

HP's recent customer wins in financial services include contracts with WestLB AG, TD Bank Financial Group, Bank of India, Helvetia Patria, China Development Bank and ING Direct.