Patricia C. Dunn
 | This article may be affected by the following current event: 2006 HP Spying Scandal. Information in this article may change rapidly as the event progresses. Initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
Patricia Cecile Dunn (born March 271953 in Burbank, California), aka Patricia Cecile Dunn-Jahnke, is the former non-executive chairman of the board of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), a position she held from February 2005 until September 2006, when she resigned her position after a California criminal indictment. Around the same time, she learned that she had ovarian cancer. On March 142007, California Superior Court judge Ray Cunningham dropped criminal charges against her. HP remains under federal investigation.
Early life and education
Dunn grew up in Las Vegas, where both of her parents were involved in the casino industry. Her father was involved to the extent that he was entertainment manager for the Dunes and Tropicana hotel-casinos, and her mother was a model and showgirl. When Dunn was only eleven, her father died. Her mother subsequently moved the family to California.[1]
Dunn entered the University of Oregon in 1970, but later had to drop out to support her mother by working as a housecleaner. She resumed college and graduated from UC Berkeley, where she graduated in 1975 with a BA in Journalism.
Career
After college, Dunn began working as a temporary secretary at Wells Fargo & Co., where she eventually became CEO. While at Wells Fargo, she met Bill Jahnke, a banker whom she later married. She also worked as a freelance journalist.
Dunn later joined the HP Board of Directors. Dunn received the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco "Financial Woman of the Year" award in 2001. She eventually succeeded Carly Fiorina as chairman of the board. Dunn was non-executive Vice Chairman of Barclays Global Investors since 2002, resigning on 6 October 2006, the day after her criminal indictment (see below). Additionally, she is Director and Executive Committee member of Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, on the board of the Conference Board's Global Corporate Governance Research Center, and an advisory board member of UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.[2]
Controversy
Dunn is at the center of a controversy regarding her effort to investigate board-level leaks to reporters in 2005-2006. HP hired companies that in the process of investigating the leaks, obtained the personal telephone records of HP board members and reporters who covered HP through a practice called pretexting.[3] It is illegal under California law to use deceit and trickery to obtain private records of individuals.
On 12 September 2006, HP announced that Mark Hurd, the current CEO, would replace her as Chairman after the HP board meeting on 18 January 2007, but that Dunn would continue as a HP board member after 18 January 2007, a position she has held since 1998. Even so, on 22 September 2006 in a press conference, Dunn resigned, effective immediately, from both her position as chairman and from the board of directors. Hurd has replaced her as Chairman. On 4 October 2006, Dunn and four others, were charged by California attorney general Bill Lockyer with four felony counts: fraudulent use of wire, radio or television transmissions; taking, copying, and using computer data without authorization; identity theft; and conspiracy. Lockyer has issued arrest warrants for all five of those so charged.[4] Dunn was scheduled to have been arraigned on 17 November 2006. On March 14, 2007, the Associated Press reported that the judge in the case would drop all criminal charges against her.
HP General Counsel Ann Baskins tendered her resignation on 28 September 2006. Baskins, who advised Dunn about "tightening control over Board members", has yet to be indicted by Lockyer.
Private life
Dunn has survived breast cancer and melanoma, and was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer in January 2004. Chemotherapy treatment led to remission until August 2006, when she underwent surgery to remove liver metastases. Dunn was scheduled to start chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer on 6 October 2006 at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.[5]
References
- ^ Stewart, J: "The Kona Files", New Yorker, Feb 19 & 26, 2007, 154.
- ^ HP Board members biographies
- ^ HP engulfed in extraordinary boardroom fight, San Jose Mercury News, 2006-09-06
- ^ Ex-Hewlett-Packard Chair Dunn Charged in Leak Case
- ^ KPIX-TV 2006-10-04