By Richard Koman for

AP reports that HP has hired Jon Hoak as VP and chief ethics and compliance officer. Hoak was formerly general counsel at NCR, where Mark Hurd served as CEO before joining HP.

Hoak and Hurd go back to Hurd's time at NCR. According to a September BusinessWeek article, it was Hoak who served as chief investigator and plumber when NCR was best by leaks and employees going postal. Hurd turned to Hoak to deal with these situations, but insisted everything be above board - at least as Hoak recalls it.

During Mark V. Hurd's 25-year career at NCR, the company had plenty of good reasons to launch internal investigations. There was the time 10 years ago when an angry, laid-off worker, after getting into a tussle with Hurd in a pickup basketball game, made repeated death threats against him and his family. Years later, during a painful round of cost-cutting for the 120-year-old cash register and computer maker, Hurd and other top executives had their tires slashed in the executive parking lot. NCR installed a security system in Hurd's house and hired a guard. And several times employees posted sensitive financial data on Yahoo! message boards.

In each investigation, Hurd, an executive who normally delves into the most minute details of daily operations, relied on his former chief counsel, Jon Hoak, to run the show. Hoak, who has since left NCR, vividly recalls Hurd's peering over his rimless reading glasses after one Yahoo leak and telling him: "We can't have this, so you go out and do what you have to. Just make sure everything we do is legal and above board."

Hoak will develop business practice guidelines and work with outside counsel to assess the company's investigative practices.