Lewis Emmett Platt (April 11, 1941 – September 8, 2005) was an American businessman and corporate director, who was chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard.

Young as president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard in 1992, and then succeeded co-founder David Packard as the company's chairman of the board in 1993.

[9] Despite his corporate successes, Platt was not considered media-savvy due his thick glasses and hulking frame and generally kept a low profile, although he did agree to sit atop of a bunch of crates on the roof of an HP building for a BusinessWeek cover story in 1995.

[7] Platt was known as an embodiment of the "HP Way", a management philosophy developed by company founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, that "built on respect for every individual and on the notion that people want to do their best — and will, if given the right direction".

Platt was noted to being attuned to the company's rank-and-file as he practiced "management by walking around", as he flew commercial airlines instead of using the corporate jet.

Platt's detractors said that company needed a more cold-blooded competitiveness and higher octane leadership to succeed, that his "pragmatic, nothing-fancy approach" seemed out of touch with the "go-go demands of the late 1990s," and that he had failed to capitalize on the Internet boom.

"[10] In March 1999, HP's board had initiated a search for Platt's successor as CEO which would eventually be Carly Fiorina who came from Lucent Technologies.

Furthermore, she was perceived as aloof, as she was an outsider to the HP culture, and also as a result of her high visibility and "rock star status" in the press which led to the board of directors complaining that she was "spending too much time on the road, neglecting the nuts-and-bolts execution of her own strategic ideas".