Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

Important Because Our Board Has a Record of Overcompensation

        On February 8, 2005 our Board ousted our chairperson Carleton Fiorina. Our board shoulders much of the blame for both Ms. Fiorina's pay and her failure. Our board delivered excess pay to Ms. Fiorina in the beginning, front-loaded, with a massive value not related to performance.

        Ms. Fiorina received almost $180 million in pay during her tenure, including a $21 million severance.

        Our Board approved the pay in question, including the "golden hello", the excess base salary, the substantial stock option awards and the excessive severance package. None of these were properly tied to performance, indeed most were completely independent of it. Consequently our board should not be surprised that since October 1998, Hewlett-Packard lost $41 in share price. If pay is delivered regardless of performance, there is no incentive to deliver performance. If our board had made all but the basic fixed elements of Ms. Fiorina's pay dependent on both turning HP around and realizing the so-called promise of the Compaq merger, then HP stockholders would be richer.

        Text of the above three paragraphs based on a 2005 report from The Corporate Library (TCL), an independent investment research firm in Portland, Maine.

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