PreCentral: Former HP CEO Leo Apotheker joins board of French IT company Steria

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Sometimes we're privileged to watch somebody go down in flames. If you're watching from the outside, it can be pretty amusing. If you've got chips in the game, it's galling and terrifying. But typically, you never expect to see that person again. It's a combination of stigma amongst those who watched it happen, and what we imagine would be utter embarrassment of the fallen.

Not so for former HP CEO Leo Apotheker. After his eleven month reign of terror at the head of the world's largest technology company, Apotheker got the boot in favor of board member and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. It wasn't until later that we saw just how much of a disaster HP was internally under Apotheker, though we saw plenty of the external signs. Apotheker went down in the kind of flames that made the reentry of Mir look like a kid with a sparkler running around in the back yard on the Fourth of July. He's the guy we though we would never ever see or hear from again, especially following his move back to France.

Nope. We were wrong. So very wrong. Leo's back. French IT company Steria appointed Apotheker and Laetitia Puyfaucher to their board last month, making the announcement today. In addition to her new position with Steria, Puyfaucher is the co-founder and chairwoman of global communications agency WordAppeal. Apotheker, we know him too well. Steria General Manager François Enaud, well, we're not going to judge him too harshly, because we really know nothing about him (or really Steria, for that matter), but he might not know Apotheker that well...

"Given the widespread changes underway in our industry, Leo's expertise in strategic planning and Laetitia's in image development will be precious assets for our group."

Maybe they don't get CNBC in France?

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