1. What kind of information can a Board Member disclose outside the company? (George Keyworth, a veteran of Washington DC politics, disclosed information about events at Board meetings and retreats to reporters.)

2. What steps should a Board Chair take when unethical conduct by a Board Member is suspected? (Patricia Dunn, Chairwoman of H-P, first had outside counsel interview board members. When a leak recurred, the firm’s General Counsel retained an outside consulting firm to do an investigation.)

3. What governance role should committee chairs play in this follow up? What role should the entire Board play? (Ms. Dunn consulted with Robert Ryan, chair of the Audit Committee, prior to the fateful full Board meeting. Tom Perkins, then chair of the governance committee, believes he should have been included.)

4. What is ethical when it comes to conducting an investigation? (Investigators used deceptive means, called “pretexting” to obtain personal phone records of board members.)

5. More broadly, is deception acceptable to obtain confidential information of any kind? (Our work with managers indicates widespread confusion over what constitutes acceptable gathering of business intelligence.)

6. What responsibility does a firm or a manager have to ensure that an outside agent or consultant does their work legally and ethically? (It wasn’t H-P who “pretexted,” it was subcontractors to the consultants.)

7. How could this happen at a company with the legendary culture and reputation of Hewlett-Packard? (H-P and the H-P Way defined excellence in all things, including business practices, back when I was in business school. In many ways, they still do.)

Have I missed any? Let me know.