HP names new strategy chief

(Reuters) -- Hewlett-Packard Co on Tuesday named software veteran Bill Veghte as chief strategy officer as it overhauls its top ranks following a series of missteps over the past year.

Veghte, who joined HP in 2010 after spending two decades at Microsoft, will continue in his current role as executive vice president of HP Software.

HP appointed former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman CEO in September, after firing former leader Leo Apotheker for a series of missteps, including a poor run at convincing Wall Street he had not overpaid for British software firm Autonomy.

HP's previous chief strategy officer Shane Robison left the company about two months ago

Veghte, who HP said was instrumental in the delivery and launch of Windows 7, would also manage HP's cloud and webOS open source initiatives.

HP opened its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies after trying to figure out how to recoup its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm, which it acquired in 2010. WebOS was part of the Palm acquisition.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernard Orr)