Posted on 09/20/2006 11:37:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s beleaguered chairwoman Patricia Dunn was in decidedly friendly territory Wednesday night as she made her first public appearance since landing at the center of a corporate investigation gone awry.
Dunn was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Bay Area Council, a politically influential business group.
"All I will say about the maelstrom is that I look forward eagerly, in the near future, to setting the record straight and going back to leading my life as discreetly as possible," Dunn said during her acceptance speech. "And in the meantime, it wouldn't hurt if the Pope continued to make controversial comments to grab the attention of the press."
State and federal authorities are investigating whether HP and the private investigators it hired to ferret out the source of media leaks used illegal means to obtain the private phone records of its directors and at least 12 other people.
"I am fully alive to the irony of being inducted into the Bay Area Council Hall of Fame at this time," Dunn said.
Also ironic was the fact that Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times one of the media outlets HP investigators spied on with possibly illegal means gave a speech during the council's annual dinner and induction ceremony at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel. He did not address the HP investigation in the speech.
Dunn also said she had some lighthearted advice from her recent travails, which is "to keep your name from being bandied about in the press with the suffix 'gate' attached to it."
Dunn was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with George Keller, the retired chairman and chief executive of Chevron Corp. and father of the Times' Bill Keller.
Silicon Valley power broker and HP's top outside counsel Larry Sonsini, who advised the board during the company investigation that's now under fire, was inducted last year.
Past inductees and other Bay Area Council members voted Dunn into the Hall of Fame in March. The inductees are honored as much for their charity work as their business acumen, said council spokesman John Grubb, who noted that Dunn volunteers time and gives money to a San Francisco homeless program.
"There is more to Patricia Dunn than the past two weeks," Grubb said. "You have a lifetime of work and because she has taken the fall shouldn't overshadow that. The business community has risen up in her support."
Dunn didn't talk to reporters, who were barred from approaching her.
The HP scandal has led to the resignation of two directors and prompted Dunn to step down, although she plans to remain on the board after the change on Jan. 18. Dunn and HP's general counsel are scheduled to testify soon before a Congressional panel investigating the affair.
get a load of this.
"All I will say about the maelstrom is that I look forward eagerly, in the near future, to setting the record straight and going back to leading my life as discreetly as possible," Dunn said during her acceptance speech. "And in the meantime, it wouldn't hurt if the Pope continued to make controversial comments to grab the attention of the press."
She should have worn clown shoes to this event.
Now that's something I didn't know. I may be switching to ExxonMobil.
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