Former HP ChairWoman Dies At 58 After Long Cancer Bout

Former HP Chair Dies At 58 After Long Cancer Bout

PALO ALTO – Patricia Dunn, the former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman who authorized a boardroom surveillance probe that ultimately sullied her remarkable rise from investment bank typist to the corporate upper class, has died. She was 58.

Dunn had battled cancer.
Once one of the most powerful women in corporate America, Dunn saw her career tarnished in 2006. That was when she was ousted from HP and brought up on criminal charges—which were ultimately dropped—for approving the company’s plan to snoop into the private phone records of board members, journalists and HP employees to catch people leaking to the media.