HP today named three new directors to its board, and one of the new faces will be very familiar to the computer maker’s longtime partners in Redmond: Ray Ozzie, the former Microsoft chief software architect, is one of the newly appointed HP board members.
Ozzie has been working on his own startup, now known as Talko (formerly Cocomo) after leaving Microsoft in 2010. The software pioneer is known for his early work on collaboration technologies including Lotus Notes.
Also joining the board are Robert “Dob” Bennett, former CEO of Liberty Media; and James Skinner, former CEO of McDonald’s, who is currently chairman of Walgreen Co. With the move, HP is expanding from nine to 12 directors on its board.
“As we move forward with our turnaround, it’s a huge benefit to be able to get advice from a board made up of such experienced business and technology leaders,” said Meg Whitman, the HP president and CEO, in a news release. “For their part, Dob, Ray and Jim have just about seen it all during their careers. I’m very grateful for their support, as well as the ongoing support from all of the directors.”
For more on Ozzie’s post-Microsoft outlook, see our on-stage Q&A with him at last year’s GeekWire Summit.
Update: The name of Ozzie’s startup has been corrected since this post was published.
