HP Inc. has hired Yahoo Inc. general counsel Julie Jacobs as its new top legal executive, the company said Friday in an internal announcement.
Jacobs will start Oct. 3 at HP, where she will succeed the tech company’s interim chief legal officer Rick Hansen, a deputy general counsel who took over the role in July.
HP announced the hire in a memo to employees, obtained by Bloomberg Law. Enrique Lores, the company’s president and chief executive, said via LinkedIn late Friday that Jacobs will hold the title of chief legal officer and general counsel.
“Julie is a terrific executive who has led world-class legal, regulatory, government relations, and compliance functions throughout her career,” Lores said. “She will be an excellent addition to our leadership team as we continue building a stronger HP.”
Jacobs, who took over as Yahoo’s top lawyer last year after spending a decade as general counsel for Verizon Media and America Online, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Nor did Apollo Global Management Inc., which paid $5 billion last year to buy Verizon Media, owner of Yahoo, AOL, and other online media businesses.
Harvey Anderson, HP’s former top lawyer after taking over last year from Kim Rivera, stepped down in late July and was replaced on an interim basis by Hansen. HP hired Hansen—who previously worked at General Motors Co., Chevron Corp., and Amazon.com Inc.—last year. He will remain with the company, HP said.
An HP spokeswoman said Anderson made the “decision to depart later this summer.” The company said it’s “grateful for Harvey’s many contributions, including the strong global legal organization he helped to build, and we wish him the very best as he enters the next chapter of his career.”
Anderson, who spent five years at HP, is a former legal chief at Mozilla Corp. and AVG Technologies. He began his career in-house at Netscape Communications Corp., which merged with AOL in 1999. Anderson didn’t respond to a comment request.
HP earlier this year saw Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquire a $4.2 billion stake in the company, which sells printers and personal computers. HP split in 2015 from the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the former cloud services and information technology unit of predecessor Hewlett-Packard Co.
