Are there any truly upstanding citizen's on HP's board? I know they are in a tough position and I wouldn't want to be in that position. But none of them have exhibited the kind of behavior that exemplifies excellent character.
The person who is looking the best at the moment is Tom Perkins. See his full statement (pdf). Many are praising him.
Over on Scoble's blog, I read the following comment (until then I had not planned to write anything on this topic):
Tom Perkins on the other hand demonstrated the best conduct that the modern boardroom has to offer. Good for him for exposing Dunn’s callous actions.
Comments like that miss the facts.
A closer reading of Tom Perkin's own public documents reveals the following facts:
- Tom, together with the chair, approved a clandestine plan to investigate the board's own members. He could have instead proposed a plan to just ask the board members directly, but he didn't. Tom was fine with keeping the leak investigation secret from the full board. (He calls it offline.)
- Tom only disagreed with the actions when he found out that personal communications were obtained as part of that investigation.
See Tom's letter of July 18th to Ann Baskins.
It is all a sad situation. I would love to see HP get back on track.