NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, who will leave her post after after the company's Jan. 18 meeting, came to the position after a long and well regarded career first at Barclay's Global Investors.

Dunn, 52, became the center of a boardroom storm in the last week after revelations that an outside investigator for the company's board may have used illegal methods to spy on some directors as well as reporters as it probed leaks of sensitive company information.

HP named Dunn non-executive chairman immediately after CEO Carly Fiorina stepped down from the position on February 9, 2005, according to the company.

She served as a director on the board of HP since 1998 and had previously performed the role of chairman of the audit committee, according to the company's web site.

Dunn served as the co-chairman, chairman and CEO of Barclay's Global Investor's (BGI) from 1995 through 2002.

Under her leadership, the asset management division of the U.K.-based financial firm expanded both into new global markets and into new product lines such as exchange traded funds, according to Businessweek.

Dunn introduced ETFs with lower fees in 2000, initiating a renewed burst of consumer interest in the product while putting BGI's competitors on the defensive according to the magazine.

Dunn pushed the BGI, among the world's largest institutional money managers, into promoting retail iShares, index funds that trade like stocks, Fortune Magazine reported.

In 2002 Dunn stepped down from the position of CEO of BGI to battle breast cancer and melanoma, according to the Wall Street Journal.

She became vice chairman of BGI in 2002 and she advises the company on strategy and business issues, according to HP's site.

Dunn also sits on the University of California's Berkeley Haas School of Business and the Conference Board's Center for Corporate Governance, according to HP's Web site.

Additionally, Dunn is a director and member of the executive committee of Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, according to her company biography.

Fortune, owned by CNNMoney.com's parent company Time Warner, ranked Dunn number 12 in its 2000 "Power 50" list of America's Top Women.

Forbes listed her as number 17 in the World's Top 100 most powerful women list.

Dunn, who is the daughter of a Las Vegas show girl as well as a Vaudeville father, had originally wanted to pursue journalism but was fearful of the career's economic prospects, according to Forbes.

Dunn instead began work as a secretary at Wells Fargo Investment Advisors in 1978.

Wells Fargo Investment Advisors would later be acquired by Barclay's Global Investors.

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Hurd to succeed Dunn at HP