Posted: 11 Aug 2010 05:16 AM PDT

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd who stepped down after allegations of sexual harassment led to an internal probe. Photographer: Kimberly White/Bloomberg

Hurd May Find Private Equity Job; Zell Not Liable to Pay

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker reports on major newsmakers in today's Movers & Shakers. (Source: Bloomberg)

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros., discusses the outlook for Hewlett-Packard Co. following the Aug. 6 resignation of Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd. Wu talks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)

8/10 Oracle’s Ellison Says HP Was Wrong to Oust CEO Hurd

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board was wrong to force the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd. In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison compared the move to Apple Inc.'s firing of Steve Jobs in the 1980s. Bloomberg's Betty Liu reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

Mark Hurd, forced to resign last week as chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co., may have a career ahead of him in private equity rather than as head of a publicly held company, analysts and executive recruiters said.

Hurd, 53, stepped down Aug. 6 after allegations of sexual harassment led to an internal probe, which turned up inaccurate expense reports and a personal relationship with an HP contract worker.

While the scandal might preclude CEO positions at businesses like Nokia Oyj or competitors like Dell Inc., Hurd probably won't settle for a smaller company after almost eight years as chief of HP and his previous employer NCR Corp., said Steven Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. A private-equity firm -- or a company owned by one -- may be an acceptable compromise.

"There is a market for talented people," Kaplan said in an interview. "As long as he didn't do anything beyond what we know now has happened -- that he messed up his expenses and it was a one-time mistake, and not fraud or something worse -- he will be very attractive to private equity."

Private-equity companies, which often acquire distressed businesses in need of restructuring, may like what Hurd accomplished at HP, including aggressive cost-cutting, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers LP in San Francisco. HP's operating margin widened 68 percent last year from fiscal 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"Private-equity firms typically want someone with a proven operational track record, someone who can execute," said Wu, who recommends buying HP shares and doesn't own any himself "This is something he has proven he can do."

First Data?

Hurd might be a good fit as CEO of First Data Corp., a merchant payment processor that is actively searching for a new chief after Michael Capellas stepped down in March, said Thomas Egan, an analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. in New York. First Data is owned by private-equity firm KKR & Co.

"What First Data needs is some heavy-duty cost-cutting and that is what Mark Hurd is good at," Egan said.

Chip Swearngan, a spokesman for First Data, had no comment. Requests for comment from Hurd were declined through his public relations firm, Sitrick and Co.

Large, publicly traded companies aren't likely to be interested in Hurd because of the negative publicity, said John Challenger, CEO of job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"He's too radioactive, and there's too many good people out there," Challenger said. "The story has been too big. It won't be forgotten."

Second Careers

Hurd will probably take time off -- six months to a year -- to plan his next move, said Neil Sims, a managing director of Boyden, an executive search firm based in Hawthorne, New York.

"I'd be surprised if he aggressively pursued an alternative immediately," said Sims, who is based in San Francisco. "Step one is to repair himself and his family personally. Step two is his public image."

Hurd wouldn't be the first executive to turn to private equity to resurrect a career. Robert Nardelli was ousted from the top job at Home Depot Inc. in 2007 amid criticism of his pay and the chain's performance. He joined Cerberus Capital Management LP and led Chrysler after the investment firm bought the carmaker. He returned to Cerberus in 2009 after Chrysler's bankruptcy.

Ray Lane, who unexpectedly resigned as president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corp. in 2000 after a fallout with his boss, Larry Ellison, joined venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and is now a managing partner.

Profit Tripled

Some public figures tainted by scandal have found careers in the media. Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign as New York governor in 2008 after a call-girl scandal, was hired by CNN in June to co-host a nightly TV show. Henry Blodget, a former analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. who was barred from the securities industry for publishing biased research on Internet stocks, now runs financial blog Business Insider.

Hurd took the top spot at HP in April 2005 and set out to return the technology firm to growth after rivals such as Dell took market share. Under Hurd, HP cut jobs and real estate holdings and closed data centers to reduce costs and increase profitability. It added sales people and redesigned laptops to boost revenue, and in 2006 overtook Dell as the world's leading maker of personal computers.

Profit at the computer maker more than tripled and sales jumped 32 percent from fiscal 2005 to 2009 under Hurd's regime, even as a global recession battered sales of PCs and printers to businesses, shrinking revenue and net income at rivals, such as Dell. The company also made more than 30 acquisitions on his watch, including Electronic Data Systems Corp., 3Com Corp., and most recently, Palm Inc.

$12.2 Million Severance

Hurd will get severance of $12.2 million, plus access to restricted HP shares. He received $30.3 million in compensation last year and $42.4 million in 2008. He stands to receive as much as $50 million before the end of the year, said Frank Glassner, CEO of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants LLC.

Hurd will likely pick a job "where he can be successful and even be successful quickly," said Brannon Cashion, president of brand consulting firm Addison Whitney in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"He'll always carry the scarlet letter of this, but memories are short and people are often given second chances," Cashion said. "When you've run a company like HP, you can springboard or leverage that into any kind of organization in the world just because of the depth and breadth of what HP brings to the market."

To contact the reporters on this story: Arik Hesseldahl in New York at ahesseldahl@bloomberg.net; Amy Thomson in New York at athomson6@bloomberg.net

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Officials hope to extend temp jobs program - San Jose Mercury News

Posted: 12 Aug 2010 08:17 PM PDT

Elsy Flores was hired by State Farm Insurance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Contingency Fund. (Sean Hiller / Staff Photographer)

Just a year ago, Elsy Flores was faced with a daunting task: supporting her five children while trying to land a decent job. And with an increasingly competitive work force and a tanking economy, her prospects weren't looking good.

But now, a year after she was laid off from her job at a Los Angeles hospital, the 34-year-old has acquired essential office and computer skills, made connections and, most importantly, started a new, lucrative career.

"I love my job," Flores, a service representative with State Farm Insurance, said Thursday afternoon as local elected officials gathered in Redondo Beach to highlight a federally funded program they say has created thousands of jobs in Los Angeles County. "I'm learning new skills in a new industry."

In return, her employer has retained Flores' services while having her wages subsidized by the federal government.

"It's a great way to bring in new individuals, train them for a new industry and prepare them for a job that will last," said Rita Hagopian, a State Farm insurance agent who hired Flores after a referral from a business and career center in Hawthorne.

Locally, State Farm has hired about 12 temporary workers through the program, Hagopian said.

The countywide program, aimed at injecting much-needed jobs into a stalled economy, is made

possible through nearly $5 billion from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, passed in 2009. Nationwide, more than 184,000 temporary jobs were created - of those an estimated 11,000 were in Los Angeles County, where the unemployment rate was 12.3 percent in June, nearly equal to the statewide average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national unemployment rate is 9.6 percent.

The average monthly salary for workers now employed through the program, Temporary

Congresswoman Jane Harman speaks at a press conference to highlight the success of a Los Angeles County employment program at the Beach Cities One-Stop Business and Employment Center in Redondo Beach. Redondo Beach Public Works employees are among the people employed through the federally funded stimulus money job program. Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward is at far left. (Sean Hiller / Staff Photographer)

Assistance for Needy Families, is about $1,400.

Jobs include computer specialists, clerical staffers, city maintenance workers and park rangers.

"That paycheck - somebody buying a cup of coffee, going to the dry cleaners, making a mortgage payment - doesn't happen with credit, that happens with people working," said Jan Vogel, executive director of the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, which has administered the program countywide since April 2009.

"And not only that, a job helps with their personal self-esteem," Vogel said.

To participate in the program, potential workers need to be eligible for CalWORKS, a state-funded program providing financial assistance to families with children living below the poverty line. In addition, businesses cannot fire employed staffers and replace them with workers paid through the program.

"This program puts people back to work," said county Supervisor Don Knabe, whom local officials credit with spearheading the program and implementing it across the region. "This is a program that works."

But soon, the stream of funding may stop, causing newly created jobs to dry up. Under current federal law, the employment program is set to end Sept. 30. Local officials hope to extend the program and increase the $5 billion funding cap.

"This program is probably the best thing out there to keep and create jobs in Los Angeles County," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo. "Why would we take something that works this well and de-fund it?"

In Redondo Beach, the program created about 26 temporary positions, most of which were in the public works department, where otherwise jobless workers assist with maintenance on the city's pier and marina.

"With the downturn in the economy, our budget, as well as other municipal budgets, is very stretched," said Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin. "We're actually on a very skeletal staff so we don't have the luxury to hire. That's why this program has been so effective. It has enabled cities to help fill those service gaps."

Hagopian touted the program's ability to bring qualified employees to her office, and pointed to Flores as a shining example of the program's success.

"She is going to have full-time employment with me come September when the program ends," Hagopian said, speaking before a crowd of reporters and elected officials. "Either way you'll have a job."

douglas.morino@dailybreeze.com

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'Don't ask, don't tell' policy ends job of Army man from Lewis County - Tacoma News Tribune

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 07:33 AM PDT

MORTON – Jonathan Hopkins is back in his native Morton, a town of about 1,000 people in southeastern Lewis County, after a nine-year career in the armed forces.

His final day of service was Tuesday in Fairbanks, Alaska. He'd rather still be doing a job he loves, but the West Point graduate and former captain was kicked out of the Army after officers learned he is gay.

It's time for the best, most powerful military in the world to change its stance toward gay men and lesbians serving, he says.

"If we can't handle a social change like that, when everybody else can, then that's just unfortunate," he said, referring to Israel, England, Canada and Australia – countries that changed their laws and accept gay men and lesbians in the military.

Hopkins, who finished the fourth-highest out of 933 cadets in his West Point graduating class, received three Bronze Stars and led three combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, appeared Wednesday on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on msnbc.

Fourteen months ago, on the day he learned he was going to be promoted to major a year early, Hopkins was told by his battalion commander that he had been outed. After years of paranoia – he said he didn't fully realize he was gay until after graduating from West Point – the fatigue of living a lie had caught up with him.

"It's a job that we risk dying doing, and yet we have to be more scared of somebody realizing we're gay, more paranoid about that, than whether the enemy is going to blow us up," Hopkins said, referring to the more than 14,000 gay men and lesbians who have been kicked out of the military. "You have to keep that all secret and tell lots of lies."

Hopkins' partner, Finely Bock of Ninilchik, Alaska, attended Morton's annual Loggers' Jubilee with him Friday to soak in the "Morton Indy Car" lawnmower race and other events before they depart Sunday for a road trip to Virginia.

Hopkins, a 1997 Morton High School graduate, plans to pursue a master's degree in national security policy at Georgetown University.

Bock said he and Hopkins have been together for 10 months, and that the soldiers Hopkins led in Alaska were "very accepting" of the relationship with Hopkins after it was revealed.

Hopkins said his friends and family initially struggled to accept his sexual orientation. He finally told his mother he's gay last Christmas.

Hopkins denounces the Army's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which dates to 1993. He says the law is missing a few words: "And don't do anything."