因个人操守丑闻下台的著名高管盘点

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Mark Hurd joins a long list of corporate leaders felled by personal ethical lapses in recent years.

Robert Moffat, a former senior vice president at International Business Machines Corp., left the company last year after becoming ensnared in a big insider trading case involving the hedge fund group Galleon and other corporate executives and traders on Wall Street.

John Browne, the former chief of oil giant BP PLC, resigned in 2007 after he admitted lying to a judge while trying to prevent a British newspaper from exposing details about his personal life.

Concerns about ethical lapses put corporate boards in a difficult spot. If the breach isn't something that is automatic grounds for firing, directors need to make judgment calls about what to do and how much to disclose.

If it acts too swiftly to eject an executive, a board risks unfairly and unnecessarily getting rid of a leader who may be running the business well. But if it fails to act with haste, rumors may leak out-possibly giving the appearance that the company doesn't have control of the situation.

Disclosure of ethical lapses is tricky too. The less a board discloses, the more the public and employees wonder what really happened, and it is hard to move on from a scandal without sufficiently satiating that appetite.

Both alleged and admitted stumbles have brought down top executives who have been under increased scrutiny in the post Enron, post-Sarbanes-Oxley world. It is also harder to hide unethical behavior partly because 'there are so many news outlets that anyone can now pick up a story and run with it,' said Ronald Sims, a business-ethics professor at the Mason School of Business at The College of William & Mary. 'In the past, it was more hush hush.'

Steven J. Heyer was ousted as chief executive of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in 2007, after the board of directors received an anonymous letter accusing him of creating a hostile work environment. The letter alleged that Mr. Heyer made inappropriate physical contact with a female employee outside a restaurant bathroom, on at least one occasion. Mr. Heyer denied engaging in any impropriety.

Chris Albrecht, the CEO of Time Warner Inc.'s Home Box Office unit, left the company in 2007 over an incident for which he pleaded no contest to battery against his girlfriend. Mr. Albrecht at the time said he was leaving because he did not want his 'personal circumstances' to distract the company. Mark W. Everson was also ousted that year as president and CEO of the American Red Cross which said at the time that he had a 'personal relationship' with a subordinate employee. Mr. Everson said he was leaving 'for personal and family reasons.'

In 2005, Boeing Co. replaced then-CEO Harry Stonecipher after emails revealed a relationship with a female executive at the company.

Boeing said at the time that Mr. Stonecipher, who was then married, was fired not for having an affair, but for violating Boeing's code of conduct. Mr. Stonecipher acknowledged his conduct.

Also in 2005, Thomas M. Coughlin resigned his post as vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. amid allegations that he abused expense accounts and fabricated invoices to obtain reimbursements totaling as much as $500,000.

A year later, he pleaded guilty to federal wire-fraud and tax-evasion charges.