The abrupt resignation Friday of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd amid a sexual harassment claim shook up the tech world. "Hurd was the last executive on earth you'd expect to resign under a cloud of suspicion about improper relationships. It's the corporate version of the old serial killer cliché ('He was so quiet and such a good neighbor!')," wrote Adam Lashinsky at CNNMoney.

A former contractor to the company had filed the claim against Hurd, and an internal investigation concluded that while he had not violated the harassment policy, there were violations of the Standards of Business Conduct, the company revealed in a news release.

It's by no means the first scandal to taint HP in recent memory. It was only five years ago that HP was embroiled in some very bad publicity over an attempt to figure out who leaked information to a reporter about a board meeting. The company spied on reporters for months and tried to get its hands on private phone call information. Ultimately, the company's general counsel and chairwoman were among several people to hand in resignations.  

The year 2005 also saw the drama-filled tenure of former HP CEO Carly Fiorina come to an end. As Charles Cooper at CBSNews put it, in a post summarizing the latest stormy chapters, for "a company that was predictably boring for decades, Hewlett-Packard's recent history has more closely resembled the plot of a Silicon Valley Peyton Place."

So what happens next at HP, and more specifically, who will be in charge? CNET's Erica Ogg and Tom Krazit present a short list of candidates, along with pros and cons for each.  If HP decides to promote from within, candidates might include Ann Livermore, Vyomesh Joshi or Todd Bradley, the CNET reporters predict. Looking elsewhere, HP might try to lure another company's president such as Yahoo's Carol Bartz or Oracle's Charles Phillips. Other possibilities, according to CNET, are Padmasree Warrior, chief technology officer at Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Steven A. Mills, senior vice president and software group executive at IBM (NYSE: IBM).

For more:
- see Adam Lashinsky's post at CNNMoney
- HP news release
- Charles Cooper's post at CBSNews
- Erica Ogg and Tom Krazit's post at CNET

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