Today, Hewlett-Packard announced that its CEO, Mark Hurd, will step down from his role and leave the company in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

Hurd has been widely praised for his role in refocusing HP after the tenure of Carly Fiorina and an internal spying scandal under her successor; after those periods of turmoil, Hurd's five year tenure has seen the company develop into a consistent profit maker and leader in global PC sales.

His business acumen, however, couldn't protect him from some personal issues, namely a charge that he was involved with the sexual harassment of a contractor. HP states that an investigation by an outside counsel cleared Hurd when it comes to HP's sexual harassment policy, but decided that he had breached its Standards of Business Conduct. HP seems to take these things seriously, given that it has a link on its homepage that lets people notify the company of "Ethics Concerns & Questions."

This article is available in fullat arstechnica.