Rice, Downer & -Packard CEO Mark Hurd

Remarks With Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard Labs

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Silicon Valley, California
May 24, 2007

MR. HURD: All right. Well, thanks. Good afternoon, or I guess good morning. We're right on the cusp here. Welcome to HP. It's a pleasure to have you all here. It's certainly an honor for us to have the Secretary of State. Thanks very much for coming. Foreign Minister Downer, a pleasure to have you here.

This is obviously -- I'm Mark Hurd. I'm CEO of Hewlett-Packard. A quick comment about HP. You know, this is a company that was started in 1939, for those of you that don't know, started by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. And it all started really in a garage just a few miles from here with two graduates from Stanford University that had very little money, and today their company is estimated to be roughly a hundred billion dollars worth of revenue operating in 179 countries across most of the major product lines of the IT industry. And it really all started from that garage with these two folks and their legacy really carries on, I think, across the entire IT industry.

Much of this valley -- I was telling the Secretary and the Minister -- that one out of every ten patents filed in the United States across all industries comes from this valley. And this valley really started with Bill and Dave, who really not only started Hewlett-Packard but really beginning the origin of the entire tech industry. So it's fantastic for us for you to stop by and to be able to take a look at the technology, and we appreciate that. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to the Secretary.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, thank you very much, Mark. Thank you, Lezlee for being here, and I'm delighted to bring Alexander Downer with me, my Australian colleague. I knew Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard very well and they really obviously started something very special here. And we've had a chance to look at their offices and to remember that really innovation comes from really smart people who are willing to take a risk, and that described Bill and Dave. That's the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that continues to infuse this valley.

We've had a chance to look at some wonderful technology, bringing the world together through very high-end videoconferencing. We've had a chance to look at energy efficiency measures that might be taken. But I think the most important thing that we've had a chance to do is to remember how important the innovation and entrepreneurship is to global competitiveness, particularly of the United States. We've talked a little bit about the need for further education of our engineering and math science graduates, something that I'm particularly interested in as a professor, former professor/soon-to-be-future professor again. (Laughter.)

And it's just a wonderful place -- HP. The valley is a terrific place. But what it really reminds us is that human knowledge knows no bounds, and when human beings are in an environment in which they can innovate, we can do anything. And I'm especially glad to have Alexander Downer here with me. Australia is another great place for innovation and brainpower, and I'm quite certain that you've had as good a time as I have.

FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER: Well, thanks very much, Condi and Mark. And ladies and gentlemen, I must say it's a pretty impressive operation you have here at Hewlett-Packard, and I think the history of it is fascinating as well, two Stanford graduates who set up this business quite some time ago now and it's turned into the biggest technology company in the world. I think it reminds us all not only of the excitement of technology but the importance of investment in R&D. When I hear this company invests $4 billion a year in R&D, it reminds me that that's so fundamental to the future.

And we're also reminded here, both at Stanford and coming to a company like this -- and there are others similar to it in Silicon Valley -- that we're reminded of the enormous importance in investment in education. When I heard the size of the endowment for Stanford University, and its annual revenue by Australian standards, it's staggering. We have great universities in Australia and we have very, very few private universities now, basically government universities. But the amount of investment in education is most impressive and it reminds me of how important that investment is for any country. I think that countries that succeed in the future are the countries that learn a bit from what you can see right here -- very heavy investment in education and particularly in technical education, in math and science and computing, engineering, and also entrepreneurship built around that. It's clustered; that entrepreneurship is clustered around here. It's around the university originally and then of course it's got its own momentum now. It's simply extraordinary to see.

But very much at the core of this is a very heavy investment in education, and in our country we're putting more and more emphasis on that and setting up a massive national endowment for the universities, and we'll be building on that in the years ahead. It's most impressive. Congratulations on what you're doing. And Hewlett-Packard has a good investment in Australia and you do a lot of business there, and we buy your stuff and you employ a lot of our people, and so that's good to see as well. Thank you.

MR. HURD: Thanks so much. Thank you. Well, again, thanks for coming. It's a great honor, and thank you all. That concludes our session for today.

2007/T8-5

Released on May 24, 2007

ENDS

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