HP Retains Senior Manager

BOSTON — Mary McDowell, who recently managed Hewlett Packard’s server division, remains with the company, ending speculation she was headed to Dell , a high-ranking HP executive said.

“There was a rumor about a month ago about some changes that included Mary McDowell,” HP CFO Bob Wayman said at SG Cowen’s Technology Conference. “She remains employed by the company as head of coporate development.”

Wayman said he did not know if McDowell had entertained an offer from the company’s rival.

McDowell previously ran Compaq’s server business. She’s been with Compaq/HP for 17 years but was reportedly on a short “sabattical” that began in May with a department reorganization.

Richard Chu, SG Cowen’s managing director for Enterprise and PC hardware, said McDowell is well-respected in the industry.

Though Wayman offered few details about McDowell’s new responsibilities, the fact that she did not leave the company is a positive for HP.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company was disappointed with recent quarterly results in its enterprise unit, which includes servers. Wayman was asked if any management changes had taken place as a result.

“Not at this time,” Wayman said. “We’ll have a look at the half and see how things go.”

More broadly, a year after the merger of HP and Compaq, Wayman said the company is pleased with the management team that it has in place under CEO Carly Fiorina.

At the highest level, only Michael Capellas, formerly Compaq’s CEO, has departed, taking on the challenge of resurrecting MCI. His departure was not a great surprise.

At the next level there have been few departures, with the exception of some instability in the storage group, Wayman said. Putting aside layoffs, the natural attrition rate is around 4 percent, Wayman said.