Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is a Silicon Valley golden boy, and a bona fide visionary by any definition. If he has a black mark to his name, it's this: he's been on HP's board of directors since 2009.
That means he's been there since HP's recent descent into chaos: firing CEO Mark Hurd, hiring Leo Apotheker, the $11 billion Autonomy acquisition debacle, firing Apotheker, hiring Meg Whitman, and the accusation that HP found $5 billion of alleged fraud on Autonomy's books.
Last month two HP board members stepped down and Ray Lane resigned his chairmanship after they were almost ousted directly by shareholders at the company's annual meeting.
Shareholders slapped Andreessen's wrist, too. Thirty percent voted to fire him.
That didn't phase him. He's committed to HP and loves Whitman.
When asked by Bloomberg's Willow Bay if he plans to stay on HP's board, he quipped, "Yeah. I come from stubborn people. My stubborn gene has been triggered and is in full effect."
He explained why: "This company built Silicon Valley. It deserves to be a glorious success story for decades to come. I am going to stick with it for as long as I can be useful."
He also called Meg Whitman an "outstanding" CEO and said of her multi-year plan to turn the company around, "The board is 100% behind her. We've got her back ... I think people are starting to get a sense of what she's about and what she's doing and also, frankly, how good of a CEO she actually is."
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