Robert E. Knowling Jr.

• Author: PORTER, MARTIN D.

Three admiring suitors, one reluctant target -- how a senior technology executive was wooed and won for a trio of board openings.

IT WAS DURING one of the most unlikely times and places that Robert E. Knowling Jr. got a request to join a corporate board. There he was, sitting on stage sharing the spotlight with none other than President Bill Clinton. Sitting with them was Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carleton "Carly" Fiorina, and Rebecca Lobo, a superstar in the women's professional basketball league. In front of a standing-room audience, these four panelists were keynoting a Silicon Valley forum addressing how to bridge the minority gap in the high-tech workforce. During the discussion, Fiorina leaned over to Knowling and, in a low hush, said, "I really want you to give serious consideration to joining my board." While Knowling says he's been accustomed to "fielding tons of requests to join boards," this was certainly a first.

What's more, he quips to DIRECTORS & BOARDS in a recent interview, he claims to have absolutely "no desire to be on anybody's board." Despite that protestation, Knowling joined not one but three corporate boards this summer -- Hewlett-Packard, Ariba Inc., and Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. This is in addition to joining the board of privately held Broadmedia Inc., an Internet services company.

At the time of our interview with him, Knowling was chairman, president and CEO of Covad Communications Group Inc., an Internet broadband services company specializing in DSL technology. In a surprise announcement just as this issue of DIRECTORS & BOARDS was going to press, Knowling resigned from the company. Covad is struggling to achieve profitability and its stock has suffered in the selloff experienced by many technology companies this year. But Knowling has proven to be an executive much admired as a manager and in demand as an outside director. This is the story of how he was wooed and won for a trio of board openings.

Knowling becomes the first outside director to join the Hewlett-Packard board since Fiorina became CEO of the computer manufacturer last year. Charged with shaking up its stodgy culture, Fiorina is the first outsider ever to lead the company. Knowling joined the H-P board in July 2000.

Ariba, which went public in 1999, has garnered recognition on Wall Street as one of the leading providers of business-to-business e-commerce support services. As to Heidrick & Struggles, the executive search firm had been...