HP reorganizes, Livermore to step down and join board

Ann Livermore will take a board seat but step down from her post as head of the company's Enterprise unit

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HP on Monday made some organizational changes as the company tries to regain its footing under its new CEO.

It has elected Ann Livermore to its board, and she will step down from her position at the head of HP's Enterprise Business. Livermore was thought to be a contender for the top job at HP, which went to former SAP boss Leo Apotheker in September last year.

Livermore has been at HP for 29 years and will stay on as the lead of the Enterprise Business until a new head is appointed, HP said.

In an effort to give more support and visibility to enterprise servers, storage, networking and software, executives running departments responsible for those products will now report directly to Apotheker. Dave Donatelli, who is executive vice president of enterprise servers, storage, networking and technology services, and Bill Veghte, executive vice president of software, now report to the CEO.

In addition, Jan Zadak, executive vice president of global sales, will also report to Apotheker.

HP also said it has eliminated the chief administrative officer role and Pete Bocian, who held that position, is leaving the company immediately. HP will absorb some of the functions from his group into others.

Randy Mott, chief information officer for HP, is also leaving the company immediately. A replacement has not yet been named.

HP also said it has implemented plans for offering market-specific solutions to both China and India, which are critical markets for the company. Todd Bradley, who runs the Personal Systems Group, will now also lead initiatives to grow HP's business in China. Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group, will do the same in India.

HP's stock has flagged since Apotheker took over the company last year. He recently announced an aggressive strategy for offering cloud services and the company will soon start selling a tablet computer. Both efforts seem aimed at making HP more competitive with other large hardware makers.