Posted on 09/09/2005 8:18:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Lew Platt, who rose from an entry-level engineer to become the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, died Thursday night of an aneuryism. He was 64 years old.
Platt led the Silicon Valley technology giant as CEO through most of the 1990s, serving a total of 33 years at the Palo Alto company. Platt joined HP in 1966 as an engineer in the company's medical products group. He moved up the ranks and was named president and chief executive officer in 1992. He succeeded HP co-founder David Packard as chairman in 1993, and was president, CEO and chairman until he retired in July 1999, when he handed over the reins to Carly Fiorina, then a high ranking executive at Lucent.
``He was just a great man, a great father, a good fisherman,'' said his wife Joan Redmund Platt, in a brief interview. ``He was a man of wonderful integrity. A person to be admired.''
Platt oversaw one of HP's biggest growth periods. During his tenure at HP, Platt also oversaw HP's spin-off of Agilent Technologies, its former test and measurement business, in 1999.
``It was a very productive period for HP historically,'' said Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC who has followed Hewlett-Packard for many years. ``He was always thinking about what's next, how could the company grow from there.''
Platt had a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He also had an honorary doctorate from Santa Clara University in Engineering Science.
``Lew cared deeply for HP and its people, and his loss is being felt widely across our company,'' said Mark Hurd, who became HP's president and CEO on April 1. ``He was a natural leader who was enormously well-liked and made an enduring impression on those he encountered. The way he treated people and how he ran the company set an exceptionally high standard of personal decency.''
After retiring from HP, Platt became CEO of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates from 2000 to mid-2001. More recently, he served as the lead director on the board of aircraft maker Boeing, whose board he joined in 1999.
Platt is survived by his wife, their children and one grandchild.
Prayers to his family.
Fiorna or whatever the heck that witch's name is ran the company into the ground.
The number of anneurysms are increasing among sedentary individuals who work primarily at PCs. I wonder if this guy sat at computers most of his days every day for decades. The lack of exercise coupled with compression of leg arteries greatly increases the chances of developing vascular anomalies such as aneurysms and pulmonary embolisms. I am just speculating here, but anyone reading this who fits that profile please make sure you take breaks every 30 minutes or so to stretch your legs, and get regular daily exercise for at least 20 minutes as well.
Unfortunately, Fiorina was a horrible successor.
One of the great success stories from California's business heydays.
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