Hewlett-Packard CIO Napier Succumbs To CancerHewlett-Packard CIO Napier Succumbs To Cancer

Hewlett-Packard CIO and executive VP Bob Napier passed away Oct. 13 in Houston following a battle with cancer, the company disclosed on Tuesday.

Napier came to HP from Compaq following HP's acquisition of Compaq in May 2002. At Compaq, Napier was CIO and senior VP of Global Business Solutions and helped bring the company into the age of E-commerce and E-business.

A business-technology veteran with more than 25 years' experience, Napier previously held CIO positions at Mariner Post-Acute Network, Delphi Automotive Systems, Lucent Technologies, AT&T Global Business Communications Systems, and Lockheed Information Management Services.

In a memo to HP employees, CEO Carly Fiorina described Napier as "one of those rare individuals who could both challenge and support, who was both tough and compassionate." In addition to being on the same executive management team at HP, Fiorina and Napier worked together at Lucent.

Fiorina regularly paraphrased Napier in speeches when she wanted to get a CIO's point of view across to the audience. Just two months ago, at the HP World conference in Atlanta, Fiorina attributed the following quote to Napier: "Every business decision triggers an IT event." Fiorina explained, "We quote him a lot because he has some quotable quotes."

Vallerie Parrish-Porter with HP's Personal Systems Group is serving as the company's acting CIO.

Napier is survived by his wife, Cheryl, a daughter, Kelly, and two sons, Kevin and Brian.