William Stark of Los Altos Hills, Pacific Skyline Council president, left, and John Richers, council CEO, right, flank Ned Barnholt, center.

The Pacific Skyline Council of Boy Scouts of America honored Los Altos resident and former Agilent Technologies CEO Ned Barnholt with its 2005 Distinguished Citizen Award Oct. 20 at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club.

Barnholt, who retired from Agilent in March after guiding the company’s spinoff from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, was honored for distinguished leadership and life skills he said he obtained from involvement with Boy Scouts.

Barnholt was an Eagle Scout in his youth.

“It’s a great honor,” Barnholt said, reflecting on the “life lessons and skills” he learned as a scout growing up in Burlingame. “I’ve come full circle.”

The Stanford University graduate, born in New York City, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.

He joined HP in 1966 in the company’s former microwave division, applying engineering and business expertise to his positions as research-and-development engineer, marketing engineer and product manager. He rose quickly through HP’s ranks, eventually to senior vice president and executive vice president in the 1990s.

He was named president and chief executive officer of Agilent in March 1999 and chairman of the Agilent board of directors in November 2002.

He is still a director of KLA-Tencor Corp. and serves on the New York Stock Exchange Listen Company Advisory Committee.

“He realized some early leadership skills came from scouting,” said John Richers, scout executive and CEO of the Pacific Skyline Council.

Barnholt has been a Los Altos resident since 1970.