Andreessen joins HP board

By Stephen Withers
Friday, 18 September 2009 05:35

People

Web pioneer Marc Andreessen has been elected to HP's board of directors.

Marc Andreessen came to public attention as the co-developer of Mosaic, the first browser with integrated graphics and the program that took the web to a wide audience.

He co-founded Mosaic Communications, which was subsequently renamed Netscape Communications.

Andreessen went on to found the Loudcloud hosting business that later morphed into datacentre management specialist Opsware, which was acquired by HP in 2007.

He also co-founded social network platform Ning and venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz, and is a board member at eBay and Facebook.

"Marc Andreessen is a software pioneer whose leadership has helped shape the Internet," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer.

"Marc's entrepreneurial background and industry expertise will be a welcome addition to the HP board of directors."

HP's board now comprises 11 directors. Hurd is the only executive director.

Only two of the directors are women: Sari Baldauf (a former executive vice president at Nokia) and Lucille Salhany (CEO of JHMedia, with a background in the TV and movie industry).