HP Labs Director Resigns
Hewlett-Packard Senior Vice President Prith Banerjee, who for five years headed the corporation's vast research and development organization, HP Labs, will be leaving the company effective April 15, according to an internal document distributed by CEO Meg Whitman. HP hasn't made an announcement of Banerjee's departure.
Banerjee is leaving for a position that will be based outside the U.S. with another organization, but that organization’s identity couldn’t immediately be learned.
Chandrakant Patel, an HP Senior Fellow, director of its Sustainable Ecosystems Research Group and 21 25-year company veteran, will head up HP Labs while a search for Banerjee’s replacement is conducted. Patel first joined HP Labs in 1991. HP Labs forms the backbone of the company’s research and development efforts, on which HP spent $3.3 billion in its 2011 fiscal year, or about 2.5 percent of sales. That’s up from $2.8 billion in 2009.
