Bill Veghte Named as HP's New Chief Strategy Officer

HP has appointed a new CSO who will spearhead the company's cloud and webOS open source initiatives.

On Tuesday, HP said that Bill Veghte is now the company's new chief strategy officer. Prior to HP, Veghte worked at Microsoft in a variety of senior leadership positions, one of which included managing the Redmond company's $15 billion global Windows business during the delivery and launch of Windows 7.

Veghte joined HP back in 2010 and, according to the company, was responsible for growing its software business by 18-percent in the most recent fiscal year. However Veghte will not only continue his current role as executive vice president of HP Software, but will be responsible for driving the company's overall strategy while leading its cloud and webOS open source initiatives.

"Every 10 to 15 years, fundamental shifts occur in the IT industry that redefine how technology is delivered," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. "From mainframes to client/server to the internet, companies that identified the opportunity first and developed the right strategy came out on top. As we move forward, HP intends to stay on top, and I believe Bill has the knowledge and vision to keep us there."

HP said that Veghte will work with HP's senior business and technology leaders to help "define the IT industry's future and make certain HP continues to lead the way." The company is also depending on Veghte to keep it on "the cutting edge of innovation."

On December 9, HP CEO Meg Whitman said that the company plans to contribute its webOS mobile operating system to the open source community. She said that HP will continue to play an active role in the development and financial support of the software while also contributing ENYO, the application framework for webOS, in the near future.

"webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable," she said in a press release. "By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices."