Meg Whitman has made her first senior appointment as HP CEO by creating a new role - exec veep for global tech and biz processes - and giving it to former Boeing bigwig John Hinshaw.

Hinshaw will oversee IT and shared and admin services, including indirect and services procurement.

He will report to Whitman and is set to become a member of HP's exec council from mid-November.

At Boeing, Hinshaw was veep and GM of the information solutions business; prior to that he was global CIO and stepping back in time even further he was senior veep and CIO at Verizon Wireless.

In another move, HP veteran Craig Flower has been elevated to CIO, in charge of data management, application architecture, global business intelligence, product development and engineering applications.

HP's senior exec deck has seen numerous changes in recent times with CEO Leo Apotheker axed, chief strategy and tech officer Shane Robison departing and PSG CTO Phil McKinney calling it a day with an exit date set for calendar year end. ®