Ann Livermore

Ann Livermore
Ann Livermore, speaking in 2010.
Born	(1958-08-23) August 23, 1958 (age 58) Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
Residence	Palo Alto, California, USA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stanford University
Occupation	Company director

Ann Martinelli Livermore (born 23 August 1958) was formerly an Executive Vice President at Hewlett-Packard, where from 2004 until June 14, 2011 she led the HP Enterprise Business business unit of HP. After being relieved of day-to-day operations, she was elected to board of directors of HP. At the time, she was a 29-year veteran of the company and among existing senior management, the longest-service executive.

Livermore was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was the valedictorian at her North Carolina high school. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar, as well as an MBA from Stanford University.

Livermore came to HP right out of graduate school. Livermore has been at HP since 1982 and has worked in a variety of sales, marketing, and research and development jobs before being elected a corporate vice president in 1995.

In 1997, Livermore was elected to the board of directors of United Parcel Service.

In 1998, when head of HP's software and services business, the company's top executives agreed to put themselves through a 360-degree evaluation. Livermore observed:

"I learned that I'm a very, very well-controlled executive, but that my employees like when I go off the handle every once in a while, you know, show my human side - It reinforced that leadership means touching people's hearts as well as their brains, so since then I haven't worried so much about keeping my lid on."

Livermore has been credited with steering HP away from its decentralized culture and hardware mentality and was the brains behind HP's E-services strategy. When HP CEO Lewis Platt announced in March 1999 that he would step down, Livermore confirmed that she wanted the job. Insiders say Livermore was the only internal candidate who made the short list, but, in July 1999, HP made the former Lucent Technologies executive Carly Fiorina the first female CEO of a Dow 30 company.