Micro Focus makes changes to board pending £7bn merger with HP's software business

Micro Focus International announced changes to its board and management team due to its pending £7bn merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ software business.

After the merger Chris Hsu, who is currently HPE’s chief operating officer and executive vice president of the software business, will be become the chief executive of Micro Focus, while current Micro Focus chief executive Stephen Murdoch become the new chief operating officer.

The FTSE 100 technology company also announced that from 15 May Silke Scheiber and Darren Roos will join the board as two of the three independent non-executive directors that HPE is entitled to nominate as part of the deal.

While John Schultz, the executive vice president and general counsel of HPE, will join the board as the non-executive director nominated by HPE who is a serving executive of HPE and will not be independent.

An additional independent non-executive director nominated by HPE will be appointed after completion of the merger.

Scheiber was an investment banker at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co from 1999 until she retired in 2015. Prior to KKR, she worked at Goldman Sachs in Germany and was a former director of Kion Group and WMF, and is a current director of CNH Industrial.

Roos spent nine years with Software AG and served on its board, while over the past three years with SAP he has been responsible for the SAP Northern European business and is currently president of its cloud business.