Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), could receive as much as $40 million in severance benefits.

A loophole in Hurd's contract could bring him this big payout. It seems that his contract did not include specific language that would permit the company to fire him "for cause." Most contracts for chief executive contain specific language that detail the conditions under which he could be fired, including breaches of the company's ethical code.

When it comes to corporate leadership and stewardship, there is no better example in recent memory than Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) CEO, Mark Hurd. After presiding over a very public corporate spying scandal in 2006, the former NCR lifer has brought HP back from the confused, muddling days of Carly Fiorina and into the tech and business spotlight.

HP has had a tremendous year in 2007 from a sales and profit perspective, which -- for a hardware company -- is no small feat. But also, Hurd has engineered larger sales from HP's software side with the Mercury Interactive acquisition, and has made the HP consumer PC business energized again with fresh designs, more retail exposure, and a solid marketing effort. In a manner of speaking, HP has thumped competitor Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) this year, as the latter has struggled with profitability, an accounting scandal, market share losses, and out-of-control costs. The exact opposite has happened to HP under Hurd's hand.

In surpassing IBM (NYSE: IBM)as the world's largest tech company this year (by sales), HP seems to be firing on all cylinders. Having covered many quarterly conference calls this year, there is not a single CEO I can think of that articulates company vision, strategy, sales prowess, and operational efficiency better than Hurd. All those variables and more are what makes a company successful, and a leader successful at leading the charge on all fronts.

For his efforts at turning around HP into the huge success it currently enjoys, Hurd is listed by Forbes as having been compensated to the tune of $15.14 million (2006 figures), which ranks him #91 on the overall list regarding total amount paid annually. Is he worth it? In terms of a CEO bargain, yes. Many (many) other CEOs have made way more than this for middling or disastrous performance. Hurd is definitely not one of them, and from this writer's perspective, he's earned every penny.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.

This really comes as no surprise -- former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who was pushed out of the company's top job a little over a year ago by chairwoman Patty Dunn, was park of the pack who tried to investigate press leaks at Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) as well. With former chairwoman Dunn (who is now indicted by the State of California for her part in HP's spying scandal) in the hot seat, one has to wonder if Carly is having her due. Well, not really -- her misplaced performance as a CEO was a mistake, although her finesse at sales and marketing (more emphasis on sales) shows a very strong track record in her career.

Carly's book, Tough Choices, is set to be released this coming Tuesday according to this Cnet article, although advance copies have been in the hands of scandal-happy reviewers already. One thing that seems interesting is the timing of the book. It coincides with the ongoing pretexting corporate spying scandal at HP right now, which resulted from leak investigations that initially started with Carly's authorization and under her watchful eye. Hmm.

This almost leaves current CEO Mark Hurd in the clear -- well, not quite. The current CEO has said that he was inattentive to some details about the ongoing corporate investigations, strange for such an operationally-minded CEO, and let some things get his approval without iron-clad due diligence on asking about the origins of the information. But, with the scandal now rocking the company having been started by a CEO predecessor -- insofar as just being approved, if anything -- Hurd will most likely stay perched atop the company where he has made significant changes and changed the once-declining fortunes of HP.

Hewlett-Packard's ongoing corporate spying scandal continues to reach new highs (and lows). Last week brought many former execs "taking the fifth" and former Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) Chairwoman Patty Dunn and current HP CEO Mark Hurd taking the stand on Capitol Hill in some down-to-earth but brazen performances.

Hurd's approach reflected his personality -- a no-nonsense businessman who is an operational geek to the hilt and who takes full responsibility for HP and all incoming data traffic that lands on his virtual desk. What about Patty Dunn, though -- she's already resigned from HP's board. Not so fast.

Dunn and others are set to be indicted on unknown charges by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In information learned by the folks over at BusinessWeek, Lockyer is sending out neat little indictment packages to Dunn, former HP business conduct head Kevin Hunsacker and possibly others as well. Update: Dunn chose to surrender at a Silicon Valley courthouse on October 5, and will be arraigned November 17.

These new charges filed by Lockyer are being filed in obvious connection to the ongoing scandal at HP (been in a remote cabin in Montana for the past month?). HP hired investigators, who ended up lying to several parties in order to obtain the personal phone records of HP directors and staff -- including external journalists -- to assist in the tracking of leak sources to various pieces of the press, even plotting to plant spies at the WSJ.) Story at 11? Nope -- story all over the place.